If you were to ask me why I spent my own money, why I never asked for a promotion or why I'm not rich from what I have done over the years, I probably couldn't give you a good reason for any of these things.
Why?
Because there was no personal interest in any of that.
And I ask, have you ever seen a living leaf in the air without roots tying it to the ground and feeding it life?
Have you ever heard a baby cry without a need?
Have you ever seen someone just react to a life or death situation because it was the right thing to do?
I can't think of anyone who wants to die to live. Although there was a Cajun joke where one was telling the other he had to die to get better.
I can't think of anyone who does something continuously with a conscious commitment to do so.
In fact, I can't see someone crazy enough to walk in my shoes and do what I have done for no other reason that it had to get done.
Where's the glory in that?
Fact is, and this may surprise you, what motivated me to do the things I have done all my life has been the desire to survive and not fail.
When my father cane back from the Korean War, I asked mom who he was and then found myself on the other side of the room. Stinging from the well placed butt punt, I vowed never to ask that question again.
When my parents were arguing violently at the table, it was I with tears rolling down my face who told them they were behaving like children.
When my father got kicked out of the Army during the McCarthy era when he said something politically wrong, it was I who was asked to help him with the cleanup of the Circle Drive In Movie theater so we could make ends meet.
As time moved on, it was I who picked up the princess phone that was directly connected to Tony Curtis' home phone and I who met Buddy Hackett on the same day. All because my father decided on his own to have a 40 Pounds of Trouble movie promotion.
Have you any idea what it feels like to have a father who puts the York Sisters on the Ed Sullivan, has images of Debbie Reynolds in pig tails and gets invited to parties sponsored by Billboard Magazine?
Ah, its crazy.
So, what do I do? Picture for just a moment a kid with no depth perception wanting to be a pilot and a brother with perfect 20/20 vision wanting to fly model airplanes and you have an idea what my parents hard to go though the first time a Piper Aircraft door was opened and I wasn't invited.
Sometimes it pays to go into emotional crisis.
And from that I started a flying club at Moorestown Senior High School. Kept it alive by pestering the Courier Post to run a story on it, got a call from Trudy Haynes do do a news feature on my flying club and organized a flight of 30 students in 20 airplanes to go to Lock Haven, PA to see Bill Piper Senior and tour Piper Aircraft.
So, yeah, too scared to fail was my theme song. Hiding the sexual abuse was one of the stanzas.
Don't know how it worked in most families back then but in mine, the guys in the family got the door and the girls got the college education.
At $2.10 per hour, in one week, I was making more than a I would as a private in the Army in one month.
Never did that figure until just now.
My interest was in getting the GI Bill.
NOTHING IS GOING TO STOP US NOW
A song done by Jefferson Starship for a movie called The Mannequin, filmed at the John Wanamaker's Store in Philadelphia. I worked at the one at the Moorestown Mall in Moorestown, NJ.
I also worked with Jefferson Starship in Lake Charles, LA as I had two young ladies to volunteer to use my metallic makeup on stage with them and pose as Mannequins.
Mickey Thomas said it served to enhance the song.
I'm also indirectly responsible for River Boat Gambling in Lake Charles. Although a bit seedy, the industry has changed the financial tapestry from either working for minimum wage or working for the refineries to additional income opportunities.
But back in 1969, this always overweight, wet behind the ears soldier was about to come up close and personal with a reality check. Never sign on the dotted line unless you understand what things really mean on the contract.
That I survived Vietnam in one piece was a miracle in itself. That I was able to do he things I did in the Army was just as amazing.
So were the people I worked for, and worked and shared my life with.
You can't put a dollar amount on any of it because it was priceless.
All because I was too scared to fail.
Monday, October 9, 2017
Friday, October 6, 2017
The End of the past with a hint of a new beginning
If there is one thing I've learned which holds true for every job I've had, is the fact that the job you had before prepares you for the one you're about to be part of. Regardless of its initial outcome, staying firm in your beliefs, hold purity in your heart, and striving to be the best at what you do trumps disappointment.
You can't make people like you. But you can always like them.
So, after I left the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, I wrote on the average of 7 articles per week for around 6 weeks. I don't remember how many of them got published but I know a lot of them did.
After that, I was reassigned to the 2/17th Cavalry with the official reason being my Cobra crew chief MOS was in critical shortage. The real reason, Soldiers Magazine pissed off the Department of Information Services trained journalists off because they were calling me and not them.
But it really didn't matter why, in truth, it had to happen. As a matter of fact, everything had to happen.I just didn't know why at the time.In fact why is sometimes realized in bits and pieces.
So, in March, the first piece of the puzzle aligned. Major General John M. Brandenburg was about to become the Commanding Officer of the 101st Airborne Division. Yeah, the same General who requested a picture of me with him.
Believe me when I say this, when General Brandenburg came over to my unit to meet with my Commanding Officer, I tried to hide from him. Unfortunately, he spotted me, excused himself from turned around and walked up to me.
I saluted him and he saluted me.
"Sergeant Edwards, didn't I just send you to Germany?"
"Yes sir."
"What are you doing back?" He laughed and walked away.
Now, I knew why everyone was stir fry nuts in Germany.
And also, now, suddenly, my Commanding Officer at the 2/17th Cavalry found himself in a rather uncomfortable situation. He just witnessed a E-5 whose cozy with the Commanding Officer of the 101st Airborne Division.
Still, the exchange between us was hilarious.
You know, sometimes being bored out of your gourd is a good thing. And while I was waiting for REFORGER 78 to start taking shape, I tjhought about an issue that has been
During REFORGER 78, the images were again mixed up:
At least, Army Aviation Magazine got the patch right this time.
Okay, so I was asked what was I doing back? Hum, well, I created a way to know what group in what troop had ordered manuals by putting extra holes in IBM 21 punch cards and that worked.
Up to that time, we had to call each troop to ask if they had ordered the manuals. After the inclusion,. we no longer had to do that.
When REFORGER 78 was about to happen, I was assigned to A Troop, 2/17th Cavalry and asked to take pictures and write stories. I talked with and sent pictures to the editor of Army Aviation Digest, I had a Black widow spider in my tent which was really cool to watch the smaller spiders try entering my tent and then back out of it. Didn't know she was in there until I split my poncho apart from my half tent.
Apparently, she died as the flap of my poncho caught the chopper blades and pretty much smacked her around until she was dead.
Arrived in Germany with 20 rounds of 36 shots slide film, 6 rounds of 36 shots black and white film. for my semi automatic 35mm packing a 28 mm lens and a sharpshooter 80mm to 210mm double barrel shot gun.
I was armed and dangerous baby and I wasn't takn prisoners!
I know all of the above sounded pretty silly. But you have to remember, I was back in country and the people I knew, the people who knew me were about to get a healthy dose Deja vu.
Sent Werthiem goes to Werthiem to Stars and Stripes and then thanked the editor for publishing it. His last words to me, "Just like old times, Sergeant Edwards"
I swear on the stack of 500 bibles that I'm not making any of this up. So I'm walking around all the evening activities, listening to the bitchy, high pitched screams of mobile generators, hearing the clanking of torque wrenches as rotor blades were being reattached to helicopters and I'm thinking, wow, I really have it made.
All I have to do is get the pictures my CO wants and do what he has no idea what I can do here and everyone is going to be happy. I'm back and, not only that, I'm back at Giebelstadt.
What could possibly go wrong in paradise?
You know whats coming, don't you?
I didn't.
I got back over to our GP medium and slept soundly until the smell of hot coffee and freshly cooked bacon drifted over my senses. After breakfast, we started throwing our gear into our duffel bags and preparing to go to the field.
Someone yelled "Ten-hut" and we all stood at attention. The voice from the colonel said, "At ease. Is there a Sergeant Edwards in here?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Report to General Brown, now."
How in the heck can a simple article published in Stars and Stripes be that wrong?
So, I reported to him.
"Sergeant Edwards, do you have film in that camera?"
MG John M. Brandenburg use to rib me with the same question. So, I wasn't sure how to answer him. I assumed he wasn't joking with me.
"Yes, sir."
"Consider that film and all the film in your possession to be official Army film. You are now the Task Force 229th official Army photographer."
"Any questions or concerns. No, sir. But I do have one concern. My CO purchased the slide film."
"You tell that Major that if he has any problems to report to me."
"Yes, sir. Thank you sir."
I saluted and walked away.
I had no idea what just happened. I mean, wasn't I already doing this?
What now?
What has changed?
What was I supposed to do next?
And more importantly, how the heck am I going to explain to my CO that the film he bought just got compenscated by the US Army?
So, I got back to the tent and the guys wanted to know what was going on.
"I don't think you're going to believe me if I told you. But here goes. So the photographer who came over to take the official images for the 101st and for Task Force 229, got his leg broken while jamming it between a 5 ton and the trailer it was pushing back.
"I am now the official 229th Task Force photographer. Even I can't believe this is happening.
"Now, I have to tell our boss his film he bought for this is no longer his."
There was a good luck with that chuckle.
"He said w h a t!!!"
After the laughter died down. "Sir, I'm not making any of this up. General Brown told me to tell you that if you have any problem with this to see him."
"Alright, I'm not going to go see General Brown over the slide film and it looks to me like you're over your head, am I right?"
"Only on the logistics side of getting out to places and taking images of all of us here. The Task Force and not just A Troop, 2/17 Cavalry. As you have already seen with my Werthiem Goes To Werthiem piece in Stars and Stripes, I still have some ties with in country publications.
"The effort needs to include the Press Center for this exercise and getting the work back to our press folks from Public Affairs that are also here for this exercise."
"Forget the Press Center, let's keep your efforts in line with the chain of command expectations. Stay with us, I'll get you out to where you want to go and once a day, a chopper will pick up your work and get it over to our division Public Affairs staff."
"Thank you, sir."
I felt like Ernie Pyle. I would go out, take pictures and sit in front of my duffel bag while I typed on my portable typewriter. At 12 noon, a chopper would land, I gave them the film and the stories I wrote and never saw any of it after that.
On day three of the exercise, I went out with our Blue Platoon and took pictures of two of our soldiers riding speeding away on their motorcycles.
Okay, so I was asked what was I doing back? Hum, well, I created a way to know what group in what troop had ordered manuals by putting extra holes in IBM 21 punch cards and that worked.
Up to that time, we had to call each troop to ask if they had ordered the manuals. After the inclusion,. we no longer had to do that.
When REFORGER 78 was about to happen, I was assigned to A Troop, 2/17th Cavalry and asked to take pictures and write stories. I talked with and sent pictures to the editor of Army Aviation Digest, I had a Black widow spider in my tent which was really cool to watch the smaller spiders try entering my tent and then back out of it. Didn't know she was in there until I split my poncho apart from my half tent.
Apparently, she died as the flap of my poncho caught the chopper blades and pretty much smacked her around until she was dead.
Arrived in Germany with 20 rounds of 36 shots slide film, 6 rounds of 36 shots black and white film. for my semi automatic 35mm packing a 28 mm lens and a sharpshooter 80mm to 210mm double barrel shot gun.
I was armed and dangerous baby and I wasn't takn prisoners!
I know all of the above sounded pretty silly. But you have to remember, I was back in country and the people I knew, the people who knew me were about to get a healthy dose Deja vu.
Sent Werthiem goes to Werthiem to Stars and Stripes and then thanked the editor for publishing it. His last words to me, "Just like old times, Sergeant Edwards"
I swear on the stack of 500 bibles that I'm not making any of this up. So I'm walking around all the evening activities, listening to the bitchy, high pitched screams of mobile generators, hearing the clanking of torque wrenches as rotor blades were being reattached to helicopters and I'm thinking, wow, I really have it made.
All I have to do is get the pictures my CO wants and do what he has no idea what I can do here and everyone is going to be happy. I'm back and, not only that, I'm back at Giebelstadt.
What could possibly go wrong in paradise?
You know whats coming, don't you?
I didn't.
I got back over to our GP medium and slept soundly until the smell of hot coffee and freshly cooked bacon drifted over my senses. After breakfast, we started throwing our gear into our duffel bags and preparing to go to the field.
Someone yelled "Ten-hut" and we all stood at attention. The voice from the colonel said, "At ease. Is there a Sergeant Edwards in here?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Report to General Brown, now."
How in the heck can a simple article published in Stars and Stripes be that wrong?
So, I reported to him.
"Sergeant Edwards, do you have film in that camera?"
MG John M. Brandenburg use to rib me with the same question. So, I wasn't sure how to answer him. I assumed he wasn't joking with me.
"Yes, sir."
"Consider that film and all the film in your possession to be official Army film. You are now the Task Force 229th official Army photographer."
"Any questions or concerns. No, sir. But I do have one concern. My CO purchased the slide film."
"You tell that Major that if he has any problems to report to me."
"Yes, sir. Thank you sir."
I saluted and walked away.
I had no idea what just happened. I mean, wasn't I already doing this?
What now?
What has changed?
What was I supposed to do next?
And more importantly, how the heck am I going to explain to my CO that the film he bought just got compenscated by the US Army?
So, I got back to the tent and the guys wanted to know what was going on.
"I don't think you're going to believe me if I told you. But here goes. So the photographer who came over to take the official images for the 101st and for Task Force 229, got his leg broken while jamming it between a 5 ton and the trailer it was pushing back.
"I am now the official 229th Task Force photographer. Even I can't believe this is happening.
"Now, I have to tell our boss his film he bought for this is no longer his."
There was a good luck with that chuckle.
"He said w h a t!!!"
After the laughter died down. "Sir, I'm not making any of this up. General Brown told me to tell you that if you have any problem with this to see him."
"Alright, I'm not going to go see General Brown over the slide film and it looks to me like you're over your head, am I right?"
"Only on the logistics side of getting out to places and taking images of all of us here. The Task Force and not just A Troop, 2/17 Cavalry. As you have already seen with my Werthiem Goes To Werthiem piece in Stars and Stripes, I still have some ties with in country publications.
"The effort needs to include the Press Center for this exercise and getting the work back to our press folks from Public Affairs that are also here for this exercise."
"Forget the Press Center, let's keep your efforts in line with the chain of command expectations. Stay with us, I'll get you out to where you want to go and once a day, a chopper will pick up your work and get it over to our division Public Affairs staff."
"Thank you, sir."
I felt like Ernie Pyle. I would go out, take pictures and sit in front of my duffel bag while I typed on my portable typewriter. At 12 noon, a chopper would land, I gave them the film and the stories I wrote and never saw any of it after that.
On day three of the exercise, I went out with our Blue Platoon and took pictures of two of our soldiers riding speeding away on their motorcycles.
Notice that the 101st Airborne insignia is taped over. We were technically in enemy territory.
And I was loving every minute of it!
After dropping them off, we move to our pickup point. After we landed, it was obvious to me and everyone else on that chopper that we didn't exactly pick the best spot for a pickup point.
"Unless that's an earthquake, we got tanks around here somewhere. Sir, I'm going to take a look around the corner. See what's up the hill. If I give you the signal, we've go to go!"
I turned to corner and all I'm seeing is tank after tank after tank. So I go up to the tank commander leading the first tank by foot. Snap some images and pull out my notepad and pencil and do what I generally do during a REFORGER exercise and start asking questions.
"Are you sure you're not the enemy."
"Yeah, I am and that's why I'm out here in the middle of no where taking pictures of you and your unit cause I want to die trying to get my stories published in EurArmy. Do you read EurArmy?"
"Yes. Does Sergeant Richard Edwards ring a bell? Drowning is Dumb?"
"Wait a minute, you're that guy."
"No, I just stole the name just to come up here and harass you."
He laughed.
"Look, I have to go. Have a chopper to catch and get this back over to the Press Center. Thanks for making this article more interesting. Anything else you want to add?"
He shook his head.
I walk calmly back down the road, turn and when I'm out of sight of the tank commander, I give our crew the "let's get the hell out of there."
I buckled in, we raised to a high over to clear the trees, looked down, saw the referee who smiled at us, shook his head and gave of the your dead for 30 minutes cut throat sign.
Oh, well, I tried.
Major General John N. Brandenburg once asked me what I was doing back after he sent me to Germany, the result of my efforts here during this REFORGER exercise was my way of answering that.
Second column. Read the We were in REFORGER paragraph.
Major General John N. Brandenburg sent me a personal and official letter of appreciation after that and I was quickly reassigned to DISCOM in an E-7 slot, Public Affairs.
The last article I did for Soldiers was "Earning My Wings". It was about me going through the Air Assault School.
What was the funniest thing that happened before I got out?
Remember me being asked to take images of the AAAA Convention in Arlington, VA?
Neither did the 2/17th Cavalry. In fact, our Legal Beagle at the Cavalry called me a lie to my face when I told him about it. It troubled me and I thought I had a pretty good excuse as to why I couldn't go when I got home from REFORGER and saw a note on the table:
Over at the hospital. Crystal is running a 104 temperature.
So I called the AAAA Convention line, talked to a colonel and told him to let Art know I have an emergency as my daughter was in the hospital with a 104 degree temperature.
Upon arrival back at Fort Campbell and since my Squadron Commander met me getting off the airplane and gave me the next 3 days off, I thought I was off the hook. Until Thursday night when a neighbor on the second floor told me that some Sergeant from the 2/17th Cavalry HAS to talk to you.
It was our legal Beagle.
"Sergeant Edwards, why is the Secretary for General Kastner wanting to know why you aren't on his airplane?"
Oh, did I want to laugh.
"Army Aviation Convention at Arlington, VA ring a bell?"
"Never mind that, get the secretary off my back."
So, I called Art, apologized. Told him what happened, told him the crisis was over and if they still needed me. I would be more than honored to go.
Orders were cut and a Captain drove me to the Nashville airport in less than 4 hours.
At the end of the convention General George S. Blanchard told General Bernard Rogers to get out of his way because he wanted me to take a picture of him and an X POW Major.
General Rogers turned to me and said, "I don't know, Sergeant Edwards, should I get out of the way."
I'm usually pretty lousy at standup quick response.
But I said, "I don't know sir, which one of you has more time in service, time in grade? Pull rank."
They both laughed and General Rogers got out of the way.
Publication with my bylines and credits from 1977 to 1979:
Proudly served:
2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry
Generals I've known and talked to personally:
General I knew before he became a 4 star:
In 1980, in August, SAGA Magazine published: Killer Copters Our Deadly Middle East Weapon.
And I was loving every minute of it!
After dropping them off, we move to our pickup point. After we landed, it was obvious to me and everyone else on that chopper that we didn't exactly pick the best spot for a pickup point.
"Unless that's an earthquake, we got tanks around here somewhere. Sir, I'm going to take a look around the corner. See what's up the hill. If I give you the signal, we've go to go!"
I turned to corner and all I'm seeing is tank after tank after tank. So I go up to the tank commander leading the first tank by foot. Snap some images and pull out my notepad and pencil and do what I generally do during a REFORGER exercise and start asking questions.
"Are you sure you're not the enemy."
"Yeah, I am and that's why I'm out here in the middle of no where taking pictures of you and your unit cause I want to die trying to get my stories published in EurArmy. Do you read EurArmy?"
"Yes. Does Sergeant Richard Edwards ring a bell? Drowning is Dumb?"
"Wait a minute, you're that guy."
"No, I just stole the name just to come up here and harass you."
He laughed.
"Look, I have to go. Have a chopper to catch and get this back over to the Press Center. Thanks for making this article more interesting. Anything else you want to add?"
He shook his head.
I walk calmly back down the road, turn and when I'm out of sight of the tank commander, I give our crew the "let's get the hell out of there."
I buckled in, we raised to a high over to clear the trees, looked down, saw the referee who smiled at us, shook his head and gave of the your dead for 30 minutes cut throat sign.
Oh, well, I tried.
Major General John N. Brandenburg once asked me what I was doing back after he sent me to Germany, the result of my efforts here during this REFORGER exercise was my way of answering that.
Major General John N. Brandenburg sent me a personal and official letter of appreciation after that and I was quickly reassigned to DISCOM in an E-7 slot, Public Affairs.
The last article I did for Soldiers was "Earning My Wings". It was about me going through the Air Assault School.
What was the funniest thing that happened before I got out?
Remember me being asked to take images of the AAAA Convention in Arlington, VA?
Neither did the 2/17th Cavalry. In fact, our Legal Beagle at the Cavalry called me a lie to my face when I told him about it. It troubled me and I thought I had a pretty good excuse as to why I couldn't go when I got home from REFORGER and saw a note on the table:
Over at the hospital. Crystal is running a 104 temperature.
So I called the AAAA Convention line, talked to a colonel and told him to let Art know I have an emergency as my daughter was in the hospital with a 104 degree temperature.
Upon arrival back at Fort Campbell and since my Squadron Commander met me getting off the airplane and gave me the next 3 days off, I thought I was off the hook. Until Thursday night when a neighbor on the second floor told me that some Sergeant from the 2/17th Cavalry HAS to talk to you.
It was our legal Beagle.
"Sergeant Edwards, why is the Secretary for General Kastner wanting to know why you aren't on his airplane?"
Oh, did I want to laugh.
"Army Aviation Convention at Arlington, VA ring a bell?"
"Never mind that, get the secretary off my back."
So, I called Art, apologized. Told him what happened, told him the crisis was over and if they still needed me. I would be more than honored to go.
Orders were cut and a Captain drove me to the Nashville airport in less than 4 hours.
At the end of the convention General George S. Blanchard told General Bernard Rogers to get out of his way because he wanted me to take a picture of him and an X POW Major.
General Rogers turned to me and said, "I don't know, Sergeant Edwards, should I get out of the way."
I'm usually pretty lousy at standup quick response.
But I said, "I don't know sir, which one of you has more time in service, time in grade? Pull rank."
They both laughed and General Rogers got out of the way.
Publication with my bylines and credits from 1977 to 1979:
- Air Force\Navy Safety Publication
- Army Aviation Digest
- Army Aviation Magazine
- Army Magazine
- Army Times
- Army War College Review
- Clarksville Leaf Chronicle
- Lake Charles American Press
- EurArmy Magazine
- Fort Campbell Courier
- Hopkinsville New Era
- Soldiers Magazine
- Stars And Stripes
Proudly served:
2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry
- Valorous Unit Award for THUA THIEN-QUANG TRI
- Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for SOUTHWEST ASIA
- Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm for VIETNAM 1968
- Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm for VIETNAM 1968-1969
- Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm for VIETNAM 1969-1971
- Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm for VIETNAM 1971
- Republic of Vietnam Civil Action Honor Medal, First Class for VIETNAM 1968-1970
- Troop A additionally entitled to:
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for DAK TO
- Presidential Unit Citation (Army) for DONG AP BIA MOUNTAIN
- Valorous Unit Award for TUY HOA
- Valorous Unit Award for THUA THIEN PROVINCE
- Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army) for VIETNAM 1965-1966
- Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm for VIETNAM 1966-1967
Generals I've known and talked to personally:
- MG Sidney Bryan Berry August-73 – July-74
- MG John A. Wickham, Jr. March-76 – March-78
- MG John N. Brandenburg March-78 – June-80
- MG Jack V. Mackmull June-80 – August-81
- MG Charles W. Bagnal August-81 – August-83
- MG Teddy G. Allen May-87 – August-89
General I knew before he became a 4 star:
- General Gary E. Luck
In 1980, in August, SAGA Magazine published: Killer Copters Our Deadly Middle East Weapon.
For me there's never been a meet destiny half way. I spent ten years trying to make Cobras, their pilots and the people who support them look good.
I spent more than $10,000 dollars of my own personal income to do it.
Now that I'm retired, I look back and wonder if anyone remembers me or wants to make my golden years just as memorable.
Thursday, October 5, 2017
A big change in the air
Something was starting to change and I wasn't quite sure why it felt wrong.
What I did know is what I didn't know was making me feel very close to falling off my high horse.
And I had already been warned by some senior non-commissioned officers that the meat grinder was waiting for me should that happen. I no longer had John Michael Coleman. I was doing things way above my pay grade. I had to fill out my own award recommendation -- singular, not plural.
And a had to put up with a performance assessment by LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe which, basically, spoke volumes about being thrown under the bus because, suddenly, it was much better to have done nothing and specialized on soldiering than it was to have significant impact through public affairs efforts on our unit's identity and awareness.
LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe had a few months to go on his 18 month cycle of job titles. It was like everyone was disappearing and I was left with a no promotion or advancement check.
I even had LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe's replacement call me up. How many enlisted men have their new Battalion CO call them up three months before they take over?
But the real clincher that convinced me it was time to move on?
When we took David Burnett over to take pictures of General Alexander Haig and LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe stopped me from going with him to take pictures of him.
Citing my being overweight as a public sore eye for the Army.
What LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe didn't know was I was also in contact with the editor of Newsweek and was told afterward that had I been able to have been able to take a picture of General Alexander Haig, they would have used my images.
Bottom line, it was time to move on.
But where?
NO LONGER A STRINGER
The Army made that decision for me.
As far as I can tell, this was also a first for the Army: a soldier, a 76Y20 Cobra Mechanic in a critical shortage MOS, was assigned on orders to the 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs Office directly from USAREUR and 7th Army.
So, in light of what was just said about the job conditions at the 3rd CAB, there were certain people who saw the accomplishments and not the man as his true worth and potential.
LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe and I put this montage of images together and it was published in Army Aviation Magazine before. I left Europe I have no idea why the montage included the 101st Airborne patch as, clearly, the 3rd Infantry patch is on the shoulders of the soldiers photographed.
IN CONCLUSION
The worst was the best and the best, was impossible for anyone to believe.
A battalion level stringer who paid for his one camera equipment, film and photographic papers.out of his own pocket, worked with Hilary Brown, David Burnett, had 27 articles accepted by EurArmy Magazine, 2 by Soldiers Magazine, pictures published in FrontLine, Pillars and Posts, The Fort Campbell Courier, Army, Army Times, Army Aviation Digest, Army Aviation Magazine, AARES (A Holland Publication), worked with Diana Dannis of AFN TV, the AV team from USAREUR and 7th Army and Stars and Stripes.
I was also asked to take images at the Army Aviation Association of America convention in 1978
All in 9 months.
Despite my dyslexia and my weight issues and my weaknesses in writing, I still managed to prove Major Shielly wrong. I did get my unit published but that wouldn't have happened without LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe and John Michael Coleman edging me on and honing my writing skills.
What I did know is what I didn't know was making me feel very close to falling off my high horse.
And I had already been warned by some senior non-commissioned officers that the meat grinder was waiting for me should that happen. I no longer had John Michael Coleman. I was doing things way above my pay grade. I had to fill out my own award recommendation -- singular, not plural.
And a had to put up with a performance assessment by LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe which, basically, spoke volumes about being thrown under the bus because, suddenly, it was much better to have done nothing and specialized on soldiering than it was to have significant impact through public affairs efforts on our unit's identity and awareness.
LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe had a few months to go on his 18 month cycle of job titles. It was like everyone was disappearing and I was left with a no promotion or advancement check.
I even had LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe's replacement call me up. How many enlisted men have their new Battalion CO call them up three months before they take over?
But the real clincher that convinced me it was time to move on?
When we took David Burnett over to take pictures of General Alexander Haig and LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe stopped me from going with him to take pictures of him.
Citing my being overweight as a public sore eye for the Army.
What LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe didn't know was I was also in contact with the editor of Newsweek and was told afterward that had I been able to have been able to take a picture of General Alexander Haig, they would have used my images.
Bottom line, it was time to move on.
But where?
NO LONGER A STRINGER
The Army made that decision for me.
As far as I can tell, this was also a first for the Army: a soldier, a 76Y20 Cobra Mechanic in a critical shortage MOS, was assigned on orders to the 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs Office directly from USAREUR and 7th Army.
So, in light of what was just said about the job conditions at the 3rd CAB, there were certain people who saw the accomplishments and not the man as his true worth and potential.
LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe and I put this montage of images together and it was published in Army Aviation Magazine before. I left Europe I have no idea why the montage included the 101st Airborne patch as, clearly, the 3rd Infantry patch is on the shoulders of the soldiers photographed.
IN CONCLUSION
The worst was the best and the best, was impossible for anyone to believe.
A battalion level stringer who paid for his one camera equipment, film and photographic papers.out of his own pocket, worked with Hilary Brown, David Burnett, had 27 articles accepted by EurArmy Magazine, 2 by Soldiers Magazine, pictures published in FrontLine, Pillars and Posts, The Fort Campbell Courier, Army, Army Times, Army Aviation Digest, Army Aviation Magazine, AARES (A Holland Publication), worked with Diana Dannis of AFN TV, the AV team from USAREUR and 7th Army and Stars and Stripes.
I was also asked to take images at the Army Aviation Association of America convention in 1978
All in 9 months.
Despite my dyslexia and my weight issues and my weaknesses in writing, I still managed to prove Major Shielly wrong. I did get my unit published but that wouldn't have happened without LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe and John Michael Coleman edging me on and honing my writing skills.
Some things aren't better left undone
"I'm going to need a ride over to Rammstein AFB so I can use the photo-lab there. The guys developing the images at the Press Center are using a film developer that takes about 5 minutes to process film. And the results are horrifying.
"That will also keep me out of the hornets' nest for a day and I will have better control over my work."
"Done."
Again, I like done.
The next day, one of our S-2 Officers, a very mad West Point Officer flew me over to Rammstein AFB.
My brother met us on arrival.
"Who the heck is your brother?"
"I'm a West Point Officer and I had to fly your enlisted brother here from Stuttgart to Rammstein AFB."
I looked at my stunned brother and smirked slightly, "Sir, I have between 3 to 4 hours of work to do at the photo-lab here. Don't know if you've been to Rammstein before but this is big base. Or if you want, you can leave and I'll lima line in to Colonel Lethcoe and tell him I've completed my work."
"Make it 3 and I'll wait."
"Yes, sir."
I pushed 10 rolls of Ilford Pan 100 using Microdol-X 3:1 at 72 degrees for 11 minutes. Within the first hour, I was done with the film processing and had one hour to work on prints, 30 minutes to work on drying them and 10 minutes to get back to the OH-58.
"Good, you're early."
"Want to see the prints, sir?"
"Sure."
He started going though all 50 of them.
"I want this one."
"Sir?"
"Can I have this one?"
"Yes, sir."
"These are really good." he said in amazement.
I think it was starting to sink in as to why it was so important to come to Rammstein.
David Allan Burnett -- A genius with a temper
Its not hard to spot the
civilians from the military. Especially when a guy walks past you with a
HAIR style black curly head of hair. His camera brands replaced with
something that ended with SKI. Is Pollaski even a word?
Anyway, I said hello and asked him if he was having any luck getting out to the field. He said no. And I said, "Let's see if I could cook him up something for tomorrow, say 9 am?"
He smiled and said, "that would be great!"
Here's a link to Davids lastest work
As soon as I got back to our field location, LTC Lethcoe was waiting for me.
"Dick, we need to talk."
"Dick, we have a problem. The Division Public Affairs Officer has complained about you doing his job for him. He wants to take over the Wednesday press trip."
"Sir, I don't have a problem with that. But I do wish to speak freely."
"Go a head."
"My father knew General Pat W. Crizer over in Korea and told me he was an exceptional officer. But no one is going to know that if the Public Affairs Officer is more interested in the girls at the press center than promoting Pat's career..
Editorial note:
This was part of Pat's Eulogy:
"This is going to get interesting."
And it did. The Public Affairs Officer called in a Zulu time pickup. So, we landed at 9am instead of 8am. Not only that, we were flying a Huey with a condition red X problem where because of the fuel indicator malfunctioning, we had to land every 25 minutes and top off the fuel tanks.
The second time we landed, Burnett lost it. Between all the yelling and dirt kicking, he made it clear as I also figured out that we needed to change choppers. So, this was explained to Burnett and luck switched sides.
I should explain at this point who I was sitting with. On the right side of the helicopter sat three photo-journalists: me, Rudy Williams and David Allan Burnett.
The first photo-op had both me and Burnett in stitches. We were both cutting up so badly, the pilots looked back to try to figure out what was so funny. We also noticed that Rudy Williams did see what we saw as being so funny.
I went hot with the mike. "Sir, we need to land."
So what was so funny. Picture two GIs sitting at a picnic table casually eating lunch behind them in a small open area were tanks and APCs with their guns pointed directly at them.
It was one of those, "What, me worry" moments that was a humorous images asking to be taken.
After eating and changing choppers, we got too busy to remember much about what we were taking images of. Just that the action shots were out in front of us and there was a lot to pick and choose from.
Suffice to say, some of the images I took in black and what were also taken by Burnett and published in Time Magazine.
There were three other times when I saw Burnett out in the field after that. Once when I was with my boss and we were watching the drop of an APC out of the back end of a C-130 and once again at the Press Center.
You can see the video of this here.
We arrived with the AV team that took this video. Because they had to set up rather quickly the tops of our choppers show up in the image.
There was supposed to be a 4th time but that was stopped by my boss. We had brought some of the press up to where General Alexander Haig had flown in by helicopter.
I was within a quarter mile of him but was stopped by my boss who told me that because I was overweight, I would not be able to go take pictures of General Alexander Haig.
Little did he or I know that this event stopped me from getting published in Newsweek who told me that had I had an image of a prominent figure, they would have published my work.
When I did say goodbye to Burnett at the press center, I wanted to see if his ego was a big as his hair do.
So I asked, "Do you think I have a chance getting published in Time Or Life?"
To this day, what he said next I will remember for the rest of my life:
"It is not a question of whether or not you have a shot at getting published in Time or Life. It is more a question of do you have the willingness to continually send them your best images until they use something you've made available to them. You have to have your name on each slide and you have to have cut lines for each image.
Never give up."
By the way, the picture in question:
I rest my case.
Anyway, I said hello and asked him if he was having any luck getting out to the field. He said no. And I said, "Let's see if I could cook him up something for tomorrow, say 9 am?"
He smiled and said, "that would be great!"
Here's a link to Davids lastest work
As soon as I got back to our field location, LTC Lethcoe was waiting for me.
"Dick, we need to talk."
"Dick, we have a problem. The Division Public Affairs Officer has complained about you doing his job for him. He wants to take over the Wednesday press trip."
"Sir, I don't have a problem with that. But I do wish to speak freely."
"Go a head."
"My father knew General Pat W. Crizer over in Korea and told me he was an exceptional officer. But no one is going to know that if the Public Affairs Officer is more interested in the girls at the press center than promoting Pat's career..
Editorial note:
This was part of Pat's Eulogy:
The 3d Division was
special for Pat. He nurtured his division, trained it as well, maybe better than
any other in the Army at the time, and developed a camaraderie, esprit de corps,
and a professional respect between himself and his officers and men." General
George S. Blanchard, US Army, Retired, recalled Pat's command of the 3d
Division: "He was an outstanding division commanding general and I remember one
Reforger when, through his division's brilliance, the 'enemy' was completely
befuddled and practically collapsed." A classmate and close friend, Major
General, US Army, Retired, Dick Bresnahan, wrote: "...Recently I met an officer
who had commanded a division with great success in the Middle East War. He had
been a major in the 3d Division when Pat commanded it. He said. 'Much of my
success and that of several other officers over there was the result of lessons
we learned from General Crizer while serving under him. He knew his business and
was a great teacher.' What else is there to say about such a loyal friend?''
Continuing on with my story:
"You pissed off the division Public Affairs Officer. Seems he's been watching you."
"I guess that piece we got on national TV made him look bad, sir"
That made LTC Lethcoe laugh. But he quickly regained his composure. "Let's do this. Put him in the hot seat and set his head set to private. You can still direct things and he'll be thinking he's the hot shot."
"This public affairs officer is not doing his job.
"If he was, I wouldn't be pulling off what I've been able to pull off."
"Permission to speak freely, sir."
"Go."
"Who knows Major General Pat W. Crizer? That's a rhetorical question. I do. You know how? My father said he knew him as a Captain during the Korean War and was impressed with him. And I've only seen him once or twice but when I have and heard him talk to the troops, he makes General Alexander Haig look bad. He's just an unbelievable cool and interesting human being.
"Dick, we know that. Just play along."
(Something tells me that a similar remark was made when General Pat W. Crizer was told to back of from totally destroying the opposing force during REFOREGER 77, too.)
"That sounds like a good plan to me, sir. You do know who this guy is, right?"
"No."
"His name is David Allan Burnett and he's there to take pictures for Time Magazine."
"That might explain why Ruddy Williams wants to tag along."
"Wait", I said incredulously, "The Rudy Williams?"
"Yes, something wrong?"
"No, not really. We - meaning you, me and John Michael Coleman -- have only run circles around this silver spooned photo-journalist at the speed of light for the past 6 months."
My real thoughts, placed bets that it was his way of claiming rights to another image he didn't take or he's so darn desperate to grab some association attention with the legandary David Allan Burnett.
David Burnett, Washington Post, June 12, 2012:
It’s difficult to explain to someone who has grown up in the world of digital photography just what it was like being a photojournalist in the all-too-recently-passed era of film cameras. That there was, necessarily, a moment when your finite roll of film would end at frame 36, and you would have to swap out the shot film for a fresh roll before being able to resume the hunt for a picture. In those “in between” moments, brief as they might have been, there was always the possibility of the picture taking place. You would try to anticipate what was happening in front of your eyes, and avoid being out of film at some key intersection of time and place. But sometimes the moment just wouldn’t wait. Photojournalism — the pursuit of storytelling with a camera — is still a relatively young trade, but there are plenty of stories about those missed pictures.
In the summer of 1972, I was a 25-year-old photojournalist working in Vietnam, mostly for Time and Life magazines. As the United States began winding down its direct combat role and encouraging Vietnamese fighting units to take over the war, trying to find and tell the story presented enormous challenges. On June 8, a New York Times reporter and I were going to explore what was happening on Route 1, an hour out of Saigon. We visited a small village that had seen some overnight fighting, but were told by locals that there was a bigger battle going on a few kilometers north. There, at the village of Trang Bang, I waited and watched with a dozen other journalists from a short distance as round after round of small-arm and grenade fire signaled an ongoing firefight. I was changing film in one of my old Leicas, an amazing camera with a reputation for being infamously difficult to load. As I struggled, a Vietnamese air force fighter came in low and slow and dropped napalm on what its pilot thought were enemy positions. Moments later, as I was still fumbling with my camera, the journalists were riveted by faint images of people running through the smoke. AP photographer Nick Ut took off toward the villagers who were running in desperation from the fire.
In one moment, when Ut’s Leica came up to his eye and he took a photograph of the badly burned children, he captured an image that would transcend politics and history and become emblematic of the horrors of war visited on the innocent. When a photograph is just right, it captures all those elements of time and emotion in an indelible way. Film and video treat every moment equally, yet those moments simply are not equal.Within minutes, the children had been hustled into Nick’s car and were en route to a Saigon hospital. A couple of hours later, I found myself at the Associated Press darkroom, waiting to see what my own pictures looked like. Then, out from the darkroom stepped Nick Ut, holding a small, still-wet copy of his best picture: a 5-by-7 print of Kim Phuc running with her brothers to escape the burning napalm. We were the first eyes to see that picture; it would be another full day before the rest of the world would see it on virtually every newspaper’s Page 1.
When I reflect on that day, my clearest memory is the sight, out of the corner of my eye, of Nick and another reporter beginning their run toward the oncoming children. It took another 20 or 30 seconds for me to finish loading my stubborn Leica, and I then joined them. It was real life, unfolding at the pace of life.For some years afterward, I wondered what had happened to Kim Phuc. She eventually left Vietnam for Cuba, and later, on a stopover in Canada, defected with her husband. They now live near Toronto, where she runs a foundation dedicated to helping children deal with the trauma of war. Nick Ut is still photographing for AP in Los Angeles.I think often of that day, and of the unlikelihood of a picture from such a relatively minor military operation becoming one of the most iconic pictures from the entire war — or any war. For those of us who carry our cameras along the sidewalk of history for a living, it is comforting to know that even in today’s digitally overloaded world, a single photograph, whether our own or someone else’s, can still tell a story that rises above language, locale and time itself.Except for one photo, which was published in Life the next week, my own pictures have lived in my archives for 40 years, like witnesses in waiting — until now.
Continuing on with my story:
"You pissed off the division Public Affairs Officer. Seems he's been watching you."
"I guess that piece we got on national TV made him look bad, sir"
That made LTC Lethcoe laugh. But he quickly regained his composure. "Let's do this. Put him in the hot seat and set his head set to private. You can still direct things and he'll be thinking he's the hot shot."
"This public affairs officer is not doing his job.
"If he was, I wouldn't be pulling off what I've been able to pull off."
"Permission to speak freely, sir."
"Go."
"Who knows Major General Pat W. Crizer? That's a rhetorical question. I do. You know how? My father said he knew him as a Captain during the Korean War and was impressed with him. And I've only seen him once or twice but when I have and heard him talk to the troops, he makes General Alexander Haig look bad. He's just an unbelievable cool and interesting human being.
"Dick, we know that. Just play along."
(Something tells me that a similar remark was made when General Pat W. Crizer was told to back of from totally destroying the opposing force during REFOREGER 77, too.)
"That sounds like a good plan to me, sir. You do know who this guy is, right?"
"No."
"His name is David Allan Burnett and he's there to take pictures for Time Magazine."
"That might explain why Ruddy Williams wants to tag along."
"Wait", I said incredulously, "The Rudy Williams?"
"Yes, something wrong?"
"No, not really. We - meaning you, me and John Michael Coleman -- have only run circles around this silver spooned photo-journalist at the speed of light for the past 6 months."
My real thoughts, placed bets that it was his way of claiming rights to another image he didn't take or he's so darn desperate to grab some association attention with the legandary David Allan Burnett.
Missing That Iconic Shot While Loading Your Leica
David Burnett, Washington Post, June 12, 2012:
It’s difficult to explain to someone who has grown up in the world of digital photography just what it was like being a photojournalist in the all-too-recently-passed era of film cameras. That there was, necessarily, a moment when your finite roll of film would end at frame 36, and you would have to swap out the shot film for a fresh roll before being able to resume the hunt for a picture. In those “in between” moments, brief as they might have been, there was always the possibility of the picture taking place. You would try to anticipate what was happening in front of your eyes, and avoid being out of film at some key intersection of time and place. But sometimes the moment just wouldn’t wait. Photojournalism — the pursuit of storytelling with a camera — is still a relatively young trade, but there are plenty of stories about those missed pictures.
In the summer of 1972, I was a 25-year-old photojournalist working in Vietnam, mostly for Time and Life magazines. As the United States began winding down its direct combat role and encouraging Vietnamese fighting units to take over the war, trying to find and tell the story presented enormous challenges. On June 8, a New York Times reporter and I were going to explore what was happening on Route 1, an hour out of Saigon. We visited a small village that had seen some overnight fighting, but were told by locals that there was a bigger battle going on a few kilometers north. There, at the village of Trang Bang, I waited and watched with a dozen other journalists from a short distance as round after round of small-arm and grenade fire signaled an ongoing firefight. I was changing film in one of my old Leicas, an amazing camera with a reputation for being infamously difficult to load. As I struggled, a Vietnamese air force fighter came in low and slow and dropped napalm on what its pilot thought were enemy positions. Moments later, as I was still fumbling with my camera, the journalists were riveted by faint images of people running through the smoke. AP photographer Nick Ut took off toward the villagers who were running in desperation from the fire.
In one moment, when Ut’s Leica came up to his eye and he took a photograph of the badly burned children, he captured an image that would transcend politics and history and become emblematic of the horrors of war visited on the innocent. When a photograph is just right, it captures all those elements of time and emotion in an indelible way. Film and video treat every moment equally, yet those moments simply are not equal.Within minutes, the children had been hustled into Nick’s car and were en route to a Saigon hospital. A couple of hours later, I found myself at the Associated Press darkroom, waiting to see what my own pictures looked like. Then, out from the darkroom stepped Nick Ut, holding a small, still-wet copy of his best picture: a 5-by-7 print of Kim Phuc running with her brothers to escape the burning napalm. We were the first eyes to see that picture; it would be another full day before the rest of the world would see it on virtually every newspaper’s Page 1.
When I reflect on that day, my clearest memory is the sight, out of the corner of my eye, of Nick and another reporter beginning their run toward the oncoming children. It took another 20 or 30 seconds for me to finish loading my stubborn Leica, and I then joined them. It was real life, unfolding at the pace of life.For some years afterward, I wondered what had happened to Kim Phuc. She eventually left Vietnam for Cuba, and later, on a stopover in Canada, defected with her husband. They now live near Toronto, where she runs a foundation dedicated to helping children deal with the trauma of war. Nick Ut is still photographing for AP in Los Angeles.I think often of that day, and of the unlikelihood of a picture from such a relatively minor military operation becoming one of the most iconic pictures from the entire war — or any war. For those of us who carry our cameras along the sidewalk of history for a living, it is comforting to know that even in today’s digitally overloaded world, a single photograph, whether our own or someone else’s, can still tell a story that rises above language, locale and time itself.Except for one photo, which was published in Life the next week, my own pictures have lived in my archives for 40 years, like witnesses in waiting — until now.
"This is going to get interesting."
And it did. The Public Affairs Officer called in a Zulu time pickup. So, we landed at 9am instead of 8am. Not only that, we were flying a Huey with a condition red X problem where because of the fuel indicator malfunctioning, we had to land every 25 minutes and top off the fuel tanks.
The second time we landed, Burnett lost it. Between all the yelling and dirt kicking, he made it clear as I also figured out that we needed to change choppers. So, this was explained to Burnett and luck switched sides.
I should explain at this point who I was sitting with. On the right side of the helicopter sat three photo-journalists: me, Rudy Williams and David Allan Burnett.
The first photo-op had both me and Burnett in stitches. We were both cutting up so badly, the pilots looked back to try to figure out what was so funny. We also noticed that Rudy Williams did see what we saw as being so funny.
I went hot with the mike. "Sir, we need to land."
So what was so funny. Picture two GIs sitting at a picnic table casually eating lunch behind them in a small open area were tanks and APCs with their guns pointed directly at them.
It was one of those, "What, me worry" moments that was a humorous images asking to be taken.
After eating and changing choppers, we got too busy to remember much about what we were taking images of. Just that the action shots were out in front of us and there was a lot to pick and choose from.
Suffice to say, some of the images I took in black and what were also taken by Burnett and published in Time Magazine.
There were three other times when I saw Burnett out in the field after that. Once when I was with my boss and we were watching the drop of an APC out of the back end of a C-130 and once again at the Press Center.
You can see the video of this here.
We arrived with the AV team that took this video. Because they had to set up rather quickly the tops of our choppers show up in the image.
There was supposed to be a 4th time but that was stopped by my boss. We had brought some of the press up to where General Alexander Haig had flown in by helicopter.
I was within a quarter mile of him but was stopped by my boss who told me that because I was overweight, I would not be able to go take pictures of General Alexander Haig.
Little did he or I know that this event stopped me from getting published in Newsweek who told me that had I had an image of a prominent figure, they would have published my work.
When I did say goodbye to Burnett at the press center, I wanted to see if his ego was a big as his hair do.
So I asked, "Do you think I have a chance getting published in Time Or Life?"
To this day, what he said next I will remember for the rest of my life:
"It is not a question of whether or not you have a shot at getting published in Time or Life. It is more a question of do you have the willingness to continually send them your best images until they use something you've made available to them. You have to have your name on each slide and you have to have cut lines for each image.
Never give up."
By the way, the picture in question:
Rudy Williams claims he took this picture.
Which would be fine if he did. But he didn't.
I did. But I couldn't prove it for years because no credits were given for images published in December 1976 Army Aviation Digest Magazine and I didn't have a back copy of the images published in Army Aviation Magazine.
Okay so, that gives me credit for being there and, as you can pretty well guess, some of these are exactly the same as the ones published in Army Aviation Digest.
Okay, so I've established that both Rudy Williams and I were on the field taking images of the Air Assault In Action demo. So how can I be so sure it was my picture?
Because it got published in Army Aviation Magazine. And the only images that could have made it into print were the ones I printed up in my photo-lab.
How can I say that with certainty?
Because:
- The deadline for submission of images for the December issue would have been 3 months prior to publication.
- Bob "Silver Fox" Crossly, Director of AV at USAREUR & 7th Army told me to send my images to him because the images he had were bad.
- Even if Rudy Williams did take a similar image and that image -- by some miracle -- did manage to get into Army Aviation Magazine, it would have his byline on it.
- Unless he was in my photo-lab and had given the images to the Colonel who picked up the images for LTC Gary E. Luck, his would not have been included.
I rest my case.
Bigger Fish To Catch
BIGGER FISH TO CATCH
They say that when one door closes and another opens. Problem is, I always have to hunt in the dark for that other door.So, I looked up the Time Magazine Correspondent in Cologne by the name of Barrett Seaman, called him up and told him that if he would show up at the Press Center the first Monday of the first week during the REFORGER exercise, I would get him into the front seat of a AH-1Q Cobra.
He got all enthusiastic and told me he was looking forward to it!
(Boy, was I talking through my butt!)
So, I went down stairs, knocked on my boss's door and heard LTC Lethcoe invite me in.
"Sir, is there any way we can possibly go to the Press Center on Monday the first week of the exercise?"
"Do you need to go over to the Press Center?"
"Not really. Barrett Seaman the Time Magazine Correspondent up in Cologne and I got to talking and he mentioned that he'd love to take a ride in one of our Cobras."
I was fully expecting the wrath of god. Instead, I got, "Wow, that's awesome! I'll do my best to make that happen!"
It was a more of a why didn't I think of that tone. And then, there was a time on April 27th when my wife went into labor and first daughter was on her way and he called me and told me he was trying to get me to Wurzburg from Heidelberg via OH-58.
I ended up riding in the back of a 5 ton truck and got there after my first child was born.
But he did try as the weather was pretty nasty for flying that day.
Tuesday, we showed up at the Press Center and I was totally surprised at what I saw. It was a buzz with typewriters pounding out content, the place was two stories high, filled with a mix of tobacco products including pipes, cigars, cigarettes and writers and photographers none of whom I knew.
There was a bit of ruckus behind me and I turned around to see Hillery Brown of ABC News -- she I recognized. I introduced myself and asked if I could be of service.
"I;m here to cover the WACS."
Well, we don't exactly call them that these days, I thought. "We have some working with us and I can get you a chopper in here tomorrow."
"Sounds great."
"Only one thing, we need you to cover our Cobras,"
"We're not here to cover the Cobras."
"Well, then, you can choose to take your chances and, perhaps, cover the WACS while they are out in the field training with us or you can get picked up tomorrow, do your story on the women in the field and cover the fact that its the first time in the History of Army Aviation that a battalion of AH-1Q TOW Cobras assigned, trained and deployed in Germany has become the first of its kind formidable and lethal anti-tank weapons system."
"Pick us up a 9am."
And we did. Not only did she get her story on the women in combat, but our battalion was on TV the next night. Aviation tank killers was beginning to be accepted as a reality.
When a helicopter has an accident happens, who are you going to call?
That be me. It was one of those additional Add On jobs LTC Gerald E Lethcoe add to my plate.
There were a total of three helicopter accidents and 1 U-21 accidents that I was tasked to take pictures of. None were fatal and two were so humorous they way they happened that I'd like to go into some detail about them.
Let me get the least two interesting ones out of the way.
AH-1Q TOW Cobra
While returning from a training exercise, the group of helicopters experienced an almost white out
condition due to an isolated snow storm that they encountered. One of the AH-1Q TOW Cobras settled down on what the pilot thought was solid ground.
When the pilot in command rolled off the power to the blades, the helicopter rolled sharply to its left side, the blades hit the ground and were completely destroyed. The Cobra was a total loss.
Please bear in mind that these images are almost 40 years old.
The
other incident involved an OH-58 when the pilot was flying using nap of
the earth tactics came up to a high point in the terrain pulled pitch
and flew right into a high power line. While the blades stayed on the
helicopter their were terribly damaged and the only thing keeping the
entire transmission and rotor section was the bolt on the 5 mount.
The first most memorable incident occurred while I was taking images for my Drowning Is Dumb article for EurArmy Magazine.
Apparently,
two pilots -- both CW4s -- were doing touch and goes on our Harvey
Barracks 8000 foot long runway while flying a U-21 aircraft. One
feathered one of the engines to stimulate a engine failure. The other
elected to land the aircraft as the wheels began to retract. For 1900
feet -- I know this because I had to take pictures where the tips of the
propellers nicked the surface of the runway and counted the distance.
The
plane eventually came to a stop in the grassy part of the runway, in
tact with more ego bruised than the aircraft itself. After I took the
images around the aircraft and inside, the plane was moved to the
outside of the hanger, the engines were removed and replaced and the
plane was flown from Harvey Barracks back to Heidelberg.
This
one involved a friend of mine by the name of Captain Harry Patterson
and it occurred down in Stuttgart during REFORGER 77. Apparently,
Captain finally convinced our operations Master Sergeant that
helicopters were safe to fly in.
Well, as it turned out, the fuel filter got clogged up and caused the engine to fail.
If
you've been in Germany, you know that the streets in the small towns
are very narrow. And Captain Paterson almost pulled off a beautiful Hail
Mary landing. I say almost because there was a street light in the
way. Upon hitting the pole, the main rotor blades removed themselves
from the helicopter, hit the corner of home and ended up in the back
yard of the owner's home.
Here's
where it gets funny. Still dazed from the landing but safe -- so was
the Master Sergeant, I should add -- Captain Patterson found himself in a
bear hug from the owner of the home thanking him for not crashing into
his home.
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
When photos and cut lines aren't enough
When we got to this point, I knew it was time to kick my writing skills up to the next level.
The interesting thing is, today, I have a spell checker. And, should I fowl on a grammar, Microsoft Word will alert me to my non-compliance.
Furthermore, today, with so much of my work depending on writing and with close to 5000 bylines, I think I've learned how to write.
That wasn't the case back in 1977. I needed help understanding prose and I needed to assure this effort would not go wasted on one hit wonders. I needed a solid template that would work for almost every article I would create.
So, I called up John Michael Coleman who was the editor for -- at the time -- Army In Europe Magazine and asked him if there would be any possibility that I could spend a week with him so I could better understand what I needed to do to get published in his publication.
Army in Europe Magazine was renamed to EurArmy Magazine a few months later.
To my surprise, John Michael Coleman welcomed the idea.
So now, I have to convince LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe that a week on orders to be temporarily located down in Heidelberg and working with John Michael Coleman was going to be a positive thing.
Well, up until Wednesday of that week, I watched John Michael Coleman shake his head left to right meaning I wasn't harmonizing with what he wanted. This was bad.
Then he pulled out a copy of an older publication and said, "Here's the format. You tell them what you are going to say, you say it and then tell them that you said it.
"Read this article and imagine how what you want to say would follow that format."
The story was 1500 words, it had a hook for an introduction, narrated through why what was said was important, then worked through some important facts and from there to the end of the piece, it was a story line walk through of narration, quotes and action that ended the article on a positive note.
I read the article in disbelief. In front of me was the template I was looking for. Staring at me with those black and white beady eyes.
You don't tell: "Today, despite bad weather, we were able to fire our TOW Missiles."
You share the same with emotions:
Here's what didn't work:
"Early morning saw a sole figure standing in front of mobile operations center. Generators screaming confusion, snow falling softly on and around him.
As the door opened, a transparent second of heat, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee mixed with pipe tobacco was felt by the guard as the officer handed him a cup of instant salvation.
"We're going to go hot today, sir. I can feel it in my bones."
"I certainly hope so. we've been here for almost a week without a break in the weather."
For the men and women of the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion (Provisional), weather at Wildflicken in the dead of winter with three days of snow paints a mission impossible picture.
They were out to fire the Tube Launched, Optically tracked and Wire Guided (TOW) Missiles down range using the AH-1Q Cobra as their firing platform.
What they were experiencing so far was a fog so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Want to guess what did?
The fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Mixing some of the stuff above so that:
"We're going to go hot today, sir. I can feel it in my bones."
"I certainly hope so. we've been here for almost a week without a break in the weather."
Doesn't sound like cardboard cutouts you threw into the mix to make the drama about as drinkable as that cup of coffee.
Also, I'm doing a lot of paraphrasing as the first article accepted by John Michael Coleman was 40 years ago.
So, what is this template called? Faction. That's right, add fiction to facts and you get faction.
It isn't that your telling the truth, you are. It is just embellished with drama to get the reader involved and keep him reading to the end.
I produced 6 more within a month.and submitted them to him. John Michael Coleman called me and asked if I could come down to Heidelberg for a day next week. I told LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe this and he approved the one day travel. One of our own OH-58 helicopters flew me there and back.
"I'm not going to be here next month, so if you send me any more of these articles, don't expect me to answer."
"Okay."
"I want to take your Cobra Crew Chief article with me and submit it to Soldiers Magazine, if that's okay with you."
At this point, I was in a state of shock. SOLDIERS MAGAZINE!!!???
As far back as I can remember, the only people who got published in Soldiers Magazine was the best of the best.
"Are you sure it is something that they're going to be interested in?"
There was a smirk on his face like he and Soldiers Magazine were the best of buddies.
"Its good enough."
So, I wrote 6 more articles and submitted them to John Michael Coleman and waited.
On April 1st, I go a call from some Sergeant down at USAREUR and 7th Army congratulating me on getting my work accepted by Soldiers Magazine.
I figured it was a joke as he called me on April Fools Day.
Turned out, it wasn't and was one of 5 that would get published from 1977 to 1979.
The second one accepted was called "Cotton Candy Carnival" and was a photo-feature and was also done while stationed in Germany and with LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe as my boss.
Another 6 more articles were sent to John Michael Coleman.
This went on from February 1977 to June 1977. Buy that time, John Michael Coleman had accepted 27 articles. And the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion was seeing its over the top share of publicity.
Well, all things must pass and John Michael Coleman informed me that he would no longer be the editor for EurArmy Magazine and that a Caption Lynn Havavk would be taking over his position.
I was told that all the stories he accepted would be used. They were. Lynn Havavk called me and told me he was planning on using my articles but not two at a time anymore. So, I was reading my articles while I was back in the states in 1978.
The interesting thing is, today, I have a spell checker. And, should I fowl on a grammar, Microsoft Word will alert me to my non-compliance.
Furthermore, today, with so much of my work depending on writing and with close to 5000 bylines, I think I've learned how to write.
That wasn't the case back in 1977. I needed help understanding prose and I needed to assure this effort would not go wasted on one hit wonders. I needed a solid template that would work for almost every article I would create.
So, I called up John Michael Coleman who was the editor for -- at the time -- Army In Europe Magazine and asked him if there would be any possibility that I could spend a week with him so I could better understand what I needed to do to get published in his publication.
Army in Europe Magazine was renamed to EurArmy Magazine a few months later.
To my surprise, John Michael Coleman welcomed the idea.
So now, I have to convince LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe that a week on orders to be temporarily located down in Heidelberg and working with John Michael Coleman was going to be a positive thing.
Well, up until Wednesday of that week, I watched John Michael Coleman shake his head left to right meaning I wasn't harmonizing with what he wanted. This was bad.
Then he pulled out a copy of an older publication and said, "Here's the format. You tell them what you are going to say, you say it and then tell them that you said it.
"Read this article and imagine how what you want to say would follow that format."
The story was 1500 words, it had a hook for an introduction, narrated through why what was said was important, then worked through some important facts and from there to the end of the piece, it was a story line walk through of narration, quotes and action that ended the article on a positive note.
I read the article in disbelief. In front of me was the template I was looking for. Staring at me with those black and white beady eyes.
You don't tell: "Today, despite bad weather, we were able to fire our TOW Missiles."
You share the same with emotions:
Here's what didn't work:
"Early morning saw a sole figure standing in front of mobile operations center. Generators screaming confusion, snow falling softly on and around him.
As the door opened, a transparent second of heat, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee mixed with pipe tobacco was felt by the guard as the officer handed him a cup of instant salvation.
"We're going to go hot today, sir. I can feel it in my bones."
"I certainly hope so. we've been here for almost a week without a break in the weather."
For the men and women of the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion (Provisional), weather at Wildflicken in the dead of winter with three days of snow paints a mission impossible picture.
They were out to fire the Tube Launched, Optically tracked and Wire Guided (TOW) Missiles down range using the AH-1Q Cobra as their firing platform.
What they were experiencing so far was a fog so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Want to guess what did?
The fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Mixing some of the stuff above so that:
"We're going to go hot today, sir. I can feel it in my bones."
"I certainly hope so. we've been here for almost a week without a break in the weather."
Doesn't sound like cardboard cutouts you threw into the mix to make the drama about as drinkable as that cup of coffee.
Also, I'm doing a lot of paraphrasing as the first article accepted by John Michael Coleman was 40 years ago.
So, what is this template called? Faction. That's right, add fiction to facts and you get faction.
It isn't that your telling the truth, you are. It is just embellished with drama to get the reader involved and keep him reading to the end.
I produced 6 more within a month.and submitted them to him. John Michael Coleman called me and asked if I could come down to Heidelberg for a day next week. I told LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe this and he approved the one day travel. One of our own OH-58 helicopters flew me there and back.
"I'm not going to be here next month, so if you send me any more of these articles, don't expect me to answer."
"Okay."
"I want to take your Cobra Crew Chief article with me and submit it to Soldiers Magazine, if that's okay with you."
At this point, I was in a state of shock. SOLDIERS MAGAZINE!!!???
As far back as I can remember, the only people who got published in Soldiers Magazine was the best of the best.
"Are you sure it is something that they're going to be interested in?"
There was a smirk on his face like he and Soldiers Magazine were the best of buddies.
"Its good enough."
So, I wrote 6 more articles and submitted them to John Michael Coleman and waited.
On April 1st, I go a call from some Sergeant down at USAREUR and 7th Army congratulating me on getting my work accepted by Soldiers Magazine.
I figured it was a joke as he called me on April Fools Day.
Turned out, it wasn't and was one of 5 that would get published from 1977 to 1979.
The second one accepted was called "Cotton Candy Carnival" and was a photo-feature and was also done while stationed in Germany and with LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe as my boss.
Another 6 more articles were sent to John Michael Coleman.
This went on from February 1977 to June 1977. Buy that time, John Michael Coleman had accepted 27 articles. And the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion was seeing its over the top share of publicity.
Well, all things must pass and John Michael Coleman informed me that he would no longer be the editor for EurArmy Magazine and that a Caption Lynn Havavk would be taking over his position.
I was told that all the stories he accepted would be used. They were. Lynn Havavk called me and told me he was planning on using my articles but not two at a time anymore. So, I was reading my articles while I was back in the states in 1978.
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Hitting the ground running
Okay, so the first encounter with my new boss, I thought, went rather well.
But I still had some issues to deal with. I had an XO who hated me, I was physically too close to the line where the US Army considered me overweight, and with respect to my writing skills, I was still pretty terrible.
For some reason, battalion level stringers wind up getting assigned to S-3 or operations. I think it was because there never was a real MOS or official job description. So, what generally happens is, unless you fight for every inch of your own turf, you wind up being the S-3 gofer.
I needed my first break.
To add to the passion to hit the ground running, The 3rd Infantry Division saw another Edwards from the same family -- namely my father -- who also happened to know a Captain during the Korean War by the name of Pat W. Crizer. The same General Pat W. Crizer who is now the 3rd Infantry Division Commanding Officer.
And yes, I did know the 3rd Infantry song by heart by the time I was 10 years old. Including the stanza that was removed from the song that was deemed "politically incorrect".
So, the first thing on my list of things to do was what we call these days networking.
The 3rd Infantry Division had two publications: FrontLine and Pillars and Posts. I needed to contact the Editor there, let him or her know who I was and then figure out how to get that foot into the door.
As it turned out, the E-6 in charge of FrontLine was also that rifted Captain Major Shielly was telling me about. And by the way, that E-6 was one hell of a good writer. Fiction writer which his work would be published in Army In Europe also known as EurArmy Magazine in a three part series.
Lucky for me, I had already made contact with the editor of Army In Europe Magazine, John Michael Coleman as two images from my photo-lab had been picked for last page winners of a monthly contest. One from one of my photo-lab enthusiasts and the other from me.
I also made contact with the editor of Stars and Stripes -- which would be a contact I would use during REFORGER 77 and REFORGER 78.
Normally, by the way, the Public Information Officer is responsible for the battalion level news releases and any "in house publications" such as a the battalion news letter.
With that in mind, I also had to come up with ways to make every effort work. Create stories that could be standalone stories, photo-features or just images with what we call cut lines -- a picture with a small one sentence blurb about the photograph and image credit.
Wrap all of this together and you have the appetizers of what I had on my plate. LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe had a couple of his own. Army Aviation Magazine was one of them.
As time will tell the rest of the story, working with Hillery Brown of ABC News and David Allan Burnett who was taking images for Time Magazine.
And since I only want to say this once, without LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe's interest and ever pressing drive for making the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion an integral part of the combined Anti-armor force of Armor and lethal TOW Cobras to be reckoned with and the all out efforts of John Michael Coleman to put up with me and my thirst for learning how to write, I wouldn't have become so visible.
I was told before I left the Army in 1979 by Department Of Defense (DOD), that I came very close to completely revamping the Public Affairs program for DOD. I thought they were trying to impress me so I would go back to Germany and do the same thing I did for another Combat Aviation Battalion located in Nuremberg.
I told them that unless LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe was the Commanding Officer of that unit, or General John M. Brandenburg was the commanding Officer of that division was there would be no way I could pull off what I did over the course of the past 3 years. I didn't want to push my luck. And that was the truth.
There is no way as an enlisted non commissioned officer that I could have pulled off half of the things I pulled off if it hadn't been for LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe. It was a mutual, combined interest and effort.
The problem is, there also has to be a mutual, combined interest and effort on the receiving side of this, too.
At Fort Campbell, KY, it was LTC John AG Klose who was just as eager to help me -- and I might add -- help himself to my services. I can remember him having me take images of General John M. Brandenburg receiving an award from General Sidney Berry because the official photographer who took the image could get the image to him on time to make the next day's newspaper.
Or the time when I went over to the airfield and took a picture of Secretary of Defense Harold Brown because, again, he wanted the image to be in the next day's issue of the Fort Campbell Courier.
Unfortunately, the picture of the Secretary of Defense picture from me never saw daylight in the Fort Campbell Courier because a GS-13 from the AV Department on post caught wind of what we were doing and told LTC Klose that if he published another unofficial image of mine when an official photographer was assigned to taking it, he would write up LTC Klose.
Well, today, the Army really does have a job description and an MOS for it. Here's the Army's job description:
Short of the Internet stuff, I guess they were telling me the truth after all.
And so, there I was, once again putting my neck in the noose and hoping the chair under my feet doesn't get kicked out from under me.
So, I go out on my first assignment and as soon as I do, who do I see whose madder than a wet hen. The one and only Major Shielly. Whom which forces me to sand at attention and salute him. He then walked away.
I spotted LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe coming in for a landing and sitting in the left seat of the Huey and once the Huey stabilized, I stood on the skid and he slid down the window. He then pointed to a button and as I looked down his finger tapped my nose and he laughed.
Okay, I love this guy, he has a wicked sense of humor. "Sir, I don't think this is going to work?"
"Why?"
"Because of Major Shielly."
"Dick, don't worry about him, he's gone."
And he was, I think we sent him down to Brigade as a signal officer.
Knowing I needed to work on my writing, I pushed pictures over to FrontLine with cut lines.
LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe and I worked on this:
On his floor and in his office. Which brings me to another point. Why would an Officer from the 3rd Infantry Division want to put together a montage of images of the 101st Airborne Division?
The answers that come quickly to my mind was it was a political investment. It was a way to pave the way for additional images we would take and make public. We had the only images of the exercise that were publishable.
One thing was for certain, take me or LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe out of this equation and from this point on, publishable content about TOW Missile attack helicopters, combined arms efforts and the stories about the men and women who made all this happen would have turned out to be a blank page in the history of Army Aviation.
This was taken with my 16 mm lens at Wildflecken.
Getting the TOW Cobra ready for action.
Almost a whiteout on take off.
TOW Missile heading down range.
The same image but from where it was taken.
But I still had some issues to deal with. I had an XO who hated me, I was physically too close to the line where the US Army considered me overweight, and with respect to my writing skills, I was still pretty terrible.
For some reason, battalion level stringers wind up getting assigned to S-3 or operations. I think it was because there never was a real MOS or official job description. So, what generally happens is, unless you fight for every inch of your own turf, you wind up being the S-3 gofer.
I needed my first break.
To add to the passion to hit the ground running, The 3rd Infantry Division saw another Edwards from the same family -- namely my father -- who also happened to know a Captain during the Korean War by the name of Pat W. Crizer. The same General Pat W. Crizer who is now the 3rd Infantry Division Commanding Officer.
And yes, I did know the 3rd Infantry song by heart by the time I was 10 years old. Including the stanza that was removed from the song that was deemed "politically incorrect".
So, the first thing on my list of things to do was what we call these days networking.
The 3rd Infantry Division had two publications: FrontLine and Pillars and Posts. I needed to contact the Editor there, let him or her know who I was and then figure out how to get that foot into the door.
As it turned out, the E-6 in charge of FrontLine was also that rifted Captain Major Shielly was telling me about. And by the way, that E-6 was one hell of a good writer. Fiction writer which his work would be published in Army In Europe also known as EurArmy Magazine in a three part series.
Lucky for me, I had already made contact with the editor of Army In Europe Magazine, John Michael Coleman as two images from my photo-lab had been picked for last page winners of a monthly contest. One from one of my photo-lab enthusiasts and the other from me.
I also made contact with the editor of Stars and Stripes -- which would be a contact I would use during REFORGER 77 and REFORGER 78.
Normally, by the way, the Public Information Officer is responsible for the battalion level news releases and any "in house publications" such as a the battalion news letter.
With that in mind, I also had to come up with ways to make every effort work. Create stories that could be standalone stories, photo-features or just images with what we call cut lines -- a picture with a small one sentence blurb about the photograph and image credit.
Wrap all of this together and you have the appetizers of what I had on my plate. LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe had a couple of his own. Army Aviation Magazine was one of them.
As time will tell the rest of the story, working with Hillery Brown of ABC News and David Allan Burnett who was taking images for Time Magazine.
And since I only want to say this once, without LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe's interest and ever pressing drive for making the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion an integral part of the combined Anti-armor force of Armor and lethal TOW Cobras to be reckoned with and the all out efforts of John Michael Coleman to put up with me and my thirst for learning how to write, I wouldn't have become so visible.
I was told before I left the Army in 1979 by Department Of Defense (DOD), that I came very close to completely revamping the Public Affairs program for DOD. I thought they were trying to impress me so I would go back to Germany and do the same thing I did for another Combat Aviation Battalion located in Nuremberg.
I told them that unless LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe was the Commanding Officer of that unit, or General John M. Brandenburg was the commanding Officer of that division was there would be no way I could pull off what I did over the course of the past 3 years. I didn't want to push my luck. And that was the truth.
There is no way as an enlisted non commissioned officer that I could have pulled off half of the things I pulled off if it hadn't been for LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe. It was a mutual, combined interest and effort.
The problem is, there also has to be a mutual, combined interest and effort on the receiving side of this, too.
At Fort Campbell, KY, it was LTC John AG Klose who was just as eager to help me -- and I might add -- help himself to my services. I can remember him having me take images of General John M. Brandenburg receiving an award from General Sidney Berry because the official photographer who took the image could get the image to him on time to make the next day's newspaper.
Or the time when I went over to the airfield and took a picture of Secretary of Defense Harold Brown because, again, he wanted the image to be in the next day's issue of the Fort Campbell Courier.
Unfortunately, the picture of the Secretary of Defense picture from me never saw daylight in the Fort Campbell Courier because a GS-13 from the AV Department on post caught wind of what we were doing and told LTC Klose that if he published another unofficial image of mine when an official photographer was assigned to taking it, he would write up LTC Klose.
Well, today, the Army really does have a job description and an MOS for it. Here's the Army's job description:
Public Affairs Specialist (46Q)
Enlisted
Officer
- Active Duty
- Army Reserve
- Entry Level
Overview
The Army public affairs specialist participates in and assists with the supervision and administration of Army public affairs programs primarily through news releases, newspaper articles, Web-based material and photographs for use in military and civilian news media.Job Duties
- Research, prepare and disseminate news releases, articles, web-based material and photographs on Army personnel and activities
- Gather information for military news programs and publications within your unit and around the Army
- Develop ideas for news articles
- Arrange and conduct interviews
- Write news releases, feature articles and editorials
- Conduct media training
Short of the Internet stuff, I guess they were telling me the truth after all.
EVERY TIME YOU GO TO ANOTHER UNIT, ITS LIKE TRYING TO PROVE YOUR WORTHINESS ALL OVER AGAIN.
Especially, if you are a helicopter mechanic suddenly pushed into a highly visible job and on one has any idea what that is. You could be a spy for all they know. Especially, when you report directly to this guy:And so, there I was, once again putting my neck in the noose and hoping the chair under my feet doesn't get kicked out from under me.
So, I go out on my first assignment and as soon as I do, who do I see whose madder than a wet hen. The one and only Major Shielly. Whom which forces me to sand at attention and salute him. He then walked away.
I spotted LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe coming in for a landing and sitting in the left seat of the Huey and once the Huey stabilized, I stood on the skid and he slid down the window. He then pointed to a button and as I looked down his finger tapped my nose and he laughed.
Okay, I love this guy, he has a wicked sense of humor. "Sir, I don't think this is going to work?"
"Why?"
"Because of Major Shielly."
"Dick, don't worry about him, he's gone."
And he was, I think we sent him down to Brigade as a signal officer.
Knowing I needed to work on my writing, I pushed pictures over to FrontLine with cut lines.
LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe and I worked on this:
On his floor and in his office. Which brings me to another point. Why would an Officer from the 3rd Infantry Division want to put together a montage of images of the 101st Airborne Division?
The answers that come quickly to my mind was it was a political investment. It was a way to pave the way for additional images we would take and make public. We had the only images of the exercise that were publishable.
One thing was for certain, take me or LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe out of this equation and from this point on, publishable content about TOW Missile attack helicopters, combined arms efforts and the stories about the men and women who made all this happen would have turned out to be a blank page in the history of Army Aviation.
This was taken with my 16 mm lens at Wildflecken.
Getting the TOW Cobra ready for action.
Almost a whiteout on take off.
TOW Missile heading down range.
The same image but from where it was taken.
Monday, October 2, 2017
Moving Forward: Overview 3rd CAB mission
A few things I forgot to mention in the previous article, General Gary E. Luck is a retired 4 star.
Retired Col John AG Klose has passed away, and Chuck Drake who was instrumental in helping me with my writing is on Facebook.
The pictures I took that I'm showing which were published were only the tip of the iceberg. Apparently, the official photographers were not quite used to taking images of helicopters in the air and racing about with a bright sky causing their light meters to, basically, turn the helicopters into black silhouettes.
The head of USAEUR & 7th Army photographers and Video crews told me to send him all my negatives so that he could create a collection of images that he could send with press releases. I did and he picked 12.
Getting slightly ahead of myself, then LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe was responsible for working with me on the REFORGER 76 images that were published in Army Aviation Digest that were shown in the previous article.
So, now that we're up to the point where the combination of all of what I had been able to do was about to be presented to LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe, only he was not seeing the past, he was hearing about me from then LTC John AG Klose.
I felt pretty alone after REFORGER 76 came to an end and the 101st Airborne Division went home. It was like I had to say good bye once again to many people who shaped my life. And that to the fact that the Adrenalin rush you get having hundreds of choppers flying over your head at 100 miles per hour and when all of that fades away and your left standing in front of a tall lanky dude who has the power to tell you your story ends here.
That's pretty scary!
Let's continue into the world of the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion (Provisional)
THE LEGACY CONTINUES
LTC John AG Klose told me, before he left, that "You need to talk to your boss, I've talked to him. You need to talk to him.
Well, I finally got the nerve up to talk with him. He was down stairs in the wood working shop building a bid house. I told him who I was, what I was doing and why my passion for photo-features was more important to me than running a photo-lab.
He sized me up. I'm not exactly a what you call skinny. In fact I was right at the line where you start thinking about losing 10 pounds to say in the military. Snowball's chance in hell was my thoughts as he sized my up.
"Well, Dick, you don't have to if you don't want to, but we have a training exercise you can go out with us on."
And I was thinking, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?? Am I in the wrong Army? When did this Army decide that you -- an E-5 -- can make any of these kinds of decisions?"
Of course, I said I wanted to very enthusiastically. Then said I had some concerns.
"Sir, Major Shielly doesn't like me much."
"I wouldn't worry about him." The way he said it made me feel secure and confident that he would be out of the picture.
"What's the other concern?"
I have a brother down at Ramstein Air Force Base who works in operations for the private jets they use to fly VIPs. We are from Norway and he's got a flight going to Oslo next week. I told him that I would like to go but.."
"What's the date?"
"Wednesday of next week. We're going to be dropping off an Air Force 1 star and be back the same day."
"Done"
I like done.
Do you know the funny thing about this story is, everything was set up, I went down to operations and asked it they had an inbound Air Force Jet. The look on their faces was priceless.
I waited for an hour and one of the operations said rather incredulously, "Sergent Edwards, we have an inbound T-39 inbound requesting that you meet them on the runway."
What was also funny about this is during REFORGER 78, I would be down in the same operation area asking if they had a German helicopter inbound to pick me up. The one below, took me to the Fulda Gap.
This time, I was head for the Fulda Gap. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's also get the various TOW Cobras we used out of the way. First, there was the Q Model Cobra.
By the way, if you see this picture on the internet and there is a byline on it other than mine, here's another angle of the same helicopter.
Tube Launched, Optically tracked, Wire guided TOW Cobra came in three versions. The Q model pictured above was barely able to carry 4 TOWs and sustain a hover.
The more powerful S Model could. But it still had the distinctive French curve canopy.
Engine exhaust was not being directed up towards the rotor blades.
The S Model modified was distinctive in that it now had the anti-glare canopy.
The production S Model was a fully built Cobra from the ground up and had a very distinctive control mechanism that protracted from the right of the helicopter.
By the time I left the Army in 1979, the Apache was just starting to show up in Europe.
Built down here in Mesa, AZ I had the chance to get up close and personal with one.
Of course, it always pays to have a Material Science Engineer for a daughter who works for Boeing
Am I really that old?
MISSION OF THE 3RD COMBAT AVIATION BATTALION
The mission of the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion (CAB) was fairly straight forward. Create a battalion level unit of Aviation tank killers. Consisting of three Companies
The 235th Attack Helicopter Company came from the states and were located at Giebelstadt Army Airfield became B Company. They brought with them 20 TOW Cobras.
A sister unit, C Company, was located in Schweinfurt, Germany.
A Company and Headquarters Company was located at Harvey Barracks in Kitzingen, Germany.
While I never kept exact count, I believe there were to be 20 TOW Cobras for each Attack helicopter company.
Keep in mind, we were the mold from which all Combat Aviation Battalions either residing in Germany or coming from the states on REFORGER exercises would be modeled after.
General George S. Blanchard was the driving force behind this concept.
The concept was to kill tanks, slow down an enemy advance long enough to replenish and beef up NATO assets in such as way that it would make the WARSAW Pact think twice about attacking West Germany.
NATO needed way reacting to a Russian invasion of Western Germany with their massive --40,000 armored tanks and vehicles positioned on the east side of the East\West German border. Intelligence gathering saw an assault through the Fulda Gap as the most ideal point of entry that could (and never did) drive directly into Western Germany and take over Frankfurt.
It was NATO verses the WARSAW Pact.
With a theoretical 12:1 kill ratio, 80 TOW Cobras could easily destroy 960. Unfortunately, for the enemy, the kill ratio wound up being an almost insane number of tanks and armored vehicles being destroyed even before even 1 TOW Cobra could be spotted close to 1 mile away from the kill zone.
But we had to get there first and we had to promote the concept that the Cobra was, indeed, a formidable platform from which TOW missiles could be fired. The end result the inhalation of enemy tanks and armored vehicles.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Vietnam: Destiny was already scribing legacy
I don't think a good story would be one if the circumstances which lead to it were not told. After all, no one could tell this story better than me and I know for a fact that there is no way you are going to believe it if you first didn't understand what got me to the beginning of this story in the first place.
After all, what I am going to be telling you about a unit in Germany and a few of my own heroes along my the way. Without them, I wouldn't be writing this in the first place. And I certainly would never be gutsy enough to or have the skull set I needed to pull off what I did without their support.
Ours looked like this:
So what started off as a way to complete my time in Vietnam, turned out to be a way for me to tell the story about the differences between a "Cavalry Gunship" and the "Aerial Artillery Platform." And I was pretty much pleased with myself when my articles saw print in Rendezvous With Destiny, Stars and Stripes and Army Times.
But something clicked. Didn't know anything about photography--what shutter speeds were or what lenses could do or what f-stops were. All I knew was editors were going gaga over them and people I took images of others wanted copies and other people kept stealing my images!
The young man who replaced me said, "Man, you're going to be a tough act to follow."
Based on what I knew back then my thoughts were that won't be to hard to do if you know how to write a story. They have plenty of images, now. I just smiled back.
What was about to cement in stone my passion and my destiny was seeing on the freedom plane my article published in Army Times. From that point, destiny was already scribing legacy.
I can thank Retired Col. Craig Gies for kick starting my career.
BACK TO THE 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION (Air Assault) I GO!
I have this unique talent for being at the right place at the right time. So, before getting orders to head From Fort Huachuca, AZ to Fort Campbell, KY, I would wind up taking an image of an Ordnance Officer standing on a 500 pound bomb.
I didn't take this image but he was standing on one of these drinking some milk. I personally thought was hilarious. This was the result of a train with 12 cars filled with 500 pound bombs caught fire and decided to make the middle of the desert outside of Benson look like a B-52 Arc Light bombing run.
The reason why I was allowed out there in the first place was because I was working for the Fort Huachuca Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and I took images of the aftermath to be used for the after actions report for both the EOC and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD).
The picture of the Officer drinking milk while standing on top of one of those 500 pound bombs got published in the Serra Vista Herald.
The other humorous story here is that 1 of the 500 pound bombs was found in Tuscon inside a damaged four car and the press had a field day, "OMG! if it went off it would..." was pretty much their theme song. If you notice, there are no fuses in them. So our local EOD people unceremoniously went up to Tucson, place the 500 pound bomb on a mattress in the back of a 3/4 ton, secured it and then took it to Fort Huachuca where they blew it up into non-existence.
I arrived at Fort Campbell, KY with my wife and it just so happened that now Major Craig Gies was there and we got to talking about my disdain for the 2/17th Cavalry verses being assigned to the 4/77th.
As it turned out, Craig invited me over to his house and also said there was nothing he could do about the assignment. I met an E-5 -- don't remember his name -- at Craig's place -- who was also assigned to the 2/17th Cavalry and to the same Troop I was being assigned to.
After arriving, that E-5 came up to me and asked, "Did you really do the things he said you did?"
"Was it good or bad?"
The e-5 looked a bit frustrated, so I said, "If you talking about the time where I found a pair of tail rotor bearings when they wasn't any of them in Vietnam, yes. If you're talking about the time I took over 2 of our sections to the 2/17th Cavalry and told a Major there that I had a Direct Order from the Divarty Commander to put them there, yes. And if your talking about the time where I single-handedly, helped to completely rebuild our unit from a logistics perspective after it pretty much got wiped off the face of the earth from a massive rocket attack, yes."
"As for the rest of the stuff I did, I can neither conform or deny such mischief. What I can say is every day was uniquely different and never dull around Craig."
I worked on a couple of AH-1G Cobras for a few months and decided to test the waters to see if the Squadron would be willing to place more emphasis on my writing and photography skills verses me being a Cobra Mechanic.
So, I talked to LTC Burnett R. Sanders. Sanders was not only interested, he was 101% percent behind what I was about to do.
When I knew him, LTC Burdett R. Sanders stood all of 5'7". He was instrumental in developing an a morale intensive environment for the 2nd Squadron, 17th Air Cavalry.
The first part of this environment included creating a program that brought the soldiers into the world of the mission tasking.
This was literally unheard of. Even in Vietnam, very few soldiers actually knew what was going on with respect to daily mission activities. Yes, the infantry was briefed on each task they were to perform but to have a similar daily briefing on mission activities which included all of the soldiers involved simply didn't happen.
It did for each soldier involved with the 2/17 Cavalry between 1973 and 1975 when LTC was Burnett R. Sanders the commanding Officer.
The second part of this morale intensive environment involved public affairs and more specifically me.
My job was to develop a program that would focus on the individual and how that job title played an important role in the success of that area of expertise and how it affected the overall performance of the Squadron.
Today, we call that process management. My job was to highlight all the sections that built up to Squadron level.
We accomplished this by providing Division Public Affairs with "Day in the life of" photo features, our "Out Front" newsletter, a very dynamically driven awards and decorations program and timely images -- pictures without articles -- to the editor of the Fort Campbell Courier.
When the 101st Airborne Division Air Assault celebrated its 101st birthday, it was my images that took up two pages in three different newspapers: The Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, The Courier Post and The Hopkinsville New Era.
Many of these images were of the Air Assault demonstration.
When we went to Fort McCoy, I was there to take pictures and to document -- I was with the Blue Platoon when it launched an attack on the National Guard. I brought a screen and a move projector and showed movies.
When we went to Fort Bliss, Tx, I went in a C-130 and took pictures of the C-5A as it opened the cargo door and we unloaded it.
When we went to Fort Polk, La, I went with LTC Sanders and, again, I brought a screen and a move projector and showed movies.
We weren't just about Cobras and recon. We also had an ground Troop. D Troop used 106 recoilless rifles. Photographing them in action was awesome.
I remember, once, taking a picture of a jeep dropped at 500 feet from under a chopper. Wasn't pretty.
We didn't just photograph exercises.
When the women of he officers wives club went to a retirement home up in hopkinsville, I took pictures and wrote a story about it. I remember an older gentleman kept on insisting we see a young man at the retirement home. When I asked him what the age was of this young man, he said 53.
As I write this, I'm almost eight years older than that "young man"
We also once landed at a school up in Hopkinsville. I'm not sure why we did but one school teacher thought it might be nice if we could return with some of the other helicopters we used. So, we did after a few weeks and I took pictures and wrote the article.
There were times when we just had fun laughing at ourselves. Maj McDermitt comes to mind. I accidently took a picture of him holding the purses of then BG Jack V. Mackmull wife's gloves and purse. LTC Sander's wife thought that to be totally hilarious considering McDermitt was well known for not liking to do such things.
So, I printed it up and it was given to Maj. McDermitt during the hail and farewell ceremony for LTC Sanders. When Maj. McDermitt wasn't happy at me he would billow out "Edwards".
This time I said while in the hallway, "I'm not here sir." That made everyone laugh.
As if that wasn't enough salt in the wound, then BG John N. Brandenburg asked McDermitt to have me report to him so he and I could have a picture taken together. Guess who had to take the picture?
It was sad to see such a good leader leave after a year and a half but that's the way of the Army. LTC Gary E. Luck assumed command.
Working interactively with the Division Public Affairs Office, I met John AG Klose and an Sergeant by the name of Charles "Chuck" Drake. Chuck was an extremely gifted and talented young man who was willing to work with me on my writing. With his help and with LTC Burnett R.Sanders approval and LTC John AG Klose's enthusiasm I managed to average a story and a picture in the Fort Campbell Courier. There were also times when 10 of my images were used over a two page spread -- known as a double truck -- and published in more than one newspaper.
Not only did the military paper use the images, so did the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle and the Hopkinsville New Era.
In 1975, I re-enlisted and received orders to head to Germany. In January of 1976, I received a Commander Certificate and an Army Accommodation medal for the work I did.
But my work was just getting started. I still had a lot to learn about writing and photography. I just had to convince the CO and XO of the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion (CAB), 3rd Infantry Division of that fact.
WHEN THINGS TO WORK OUT, RATCHET UP THE STAKES
I pretty much crashed and burned on my first attempt to gain traction on being the 3rd CAB. My wife arrived in Country and we had to leave to go back to the States because her brother died. I had an issue with my TA-50 gear being stolen back in the states and that didn't help. The camel's back got broken when the Inspector General (IG) Inspection found me to be in a critical job title.
No one wanted me but the Aid De Camp for the Harvey Barracks' 1 Star saw me on gate guard, wanted to know what I was doing there and I told him.
One month later, I took over the Special Services Photo-lab. You can imagine what happened after that, I learned photography like my life depending on it. What I could do with film and photographic paper was amazing. Worked with color slide film and how to do Cibachrome.
About the same time, I was hearing about the 101st Airborne Division coming over on REFORGER 76. On top of that, my unit just had a change of command and the 3rd CAB was going to be sponsoring the 158th Aviation Battalion. Its Commanding Officer was LTC John AG Klose.
The local Special Services supervisor had added a new civilian to run the photo-lab, so I had plenty of time to take pictures of the soldiers from the 101st getting things ready for the rest of the 101st to arrive and I sent them back to the Fort Campbell Courier.
"NOT ONLY CAN'T YOU WRITE, BUT IF YOU COULD, OUR RIFTED OFFICER WITH A DEGREE IN WRITING COULD GET US PUBLISHED"
That's what the XO, Major Scheely said to me months back before I took over the photo-lab.
He threw me out of the library when I told him LTC John AG Klose was the Public Affairs Officer at the101st when I was there and is now the CO of the 158th Aviation Battalion whom which we were sponsoring during their stay in Germany.
When LTC John AG Klose did see me, he said "Dick, what are you doing?"
I said, "Running a photo-lab, sir."
He said, "Not going to happen. Want me to talk to your boss?"
I thought, when does an E-5 have this kind of decision making clout, but said, "Yes, sir."
"Okay, done. By the way, Public Affairs wants to know how you're getting images back to the states when no one else is doing it."
"I'm sending them through the Bundespost -- the German post office."
"Have time to work with me?"
"Yes sir!"
The 101st Airborne Division Air Assault, conducts what's known as an Air Assault in Action demonstration. The Division was planning one for all the European dignitaries in Europe.
Up until recently, I wasn't able to prove that the images published in Army Aviation Digest were mine.
You can check those out here.
And to prove it, here's some more
And:
The humorous story here:There is actually two.
LTC John AG Klose dropped me off where the Air Assault In Action was to take place and I walked up to my enemy -- anyone with a camera, I consider an professional rival -- and asked, "Anyone know what is going on here?"
As soon as I asked the question, out in the middle of the field, "Dick Edwards get over here."
Oh, my gawd, its LTC Gary E. Luck. So, I went over to him started to salute him but instead he opted for a hand shake.
"What are yo udoing out here?"
"Sir, I'm here to take pictures."
Well, he got a bit testy, "I meant who gave you permission to be out here?"
"Oh, well, I'm running a photo-lab at Harvey Barracks in Kitzingen and my direct boss said it was okay. Also, LTC John AG Klose invited me."
"Great, are you going to take some good pictures."
"Yes, sir."
"Where are you developing your images?"
I'm thinking, didn't I just tell you?
"At my photo-lab at Harvey Barracks in Kitzingen."
And I saluted him, he did the same and I walked away.
Now everyone wanted to know what I knew about what was about to happen. So I told them. Got into position and got ready to take the pictures that you see above.
Second one:
So, I'm up in my lab and I've just finished processing the film and am running the prints through the dryer.
There is a knock on the door.
There is a second knock on the door.
There is a third and louder knock on the door.
I'm tinking whose ever knocking on that door can't read the closed sign.
So, I go to answer it and Immediately stand at attention. Its a Full Bird Colonel.
"At ease. Are you Sergeant Edwards?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'm here to pick up pictures. Gary E. Luck sent me."
At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't something in the water or the European environment has caused the US Army to go completely nuts.
I get a LTC asking me if it is okay to talk to my boss and now, I have a Full Bird Colonel doing errand runs for an LTC.
Not only that, what would have happened if I decided to do the images later?
I have no idea whatever happened to those images past that point. What I do know is the 101st recommended an impact Army Accommodation medal but it was denied by the 3rd Infantry Division as I had just received one 8 months prior.
For those of you who don't know this, photographs seldom ever get used from unofficial resources. In fact, your job title is Journalist or photographer and the military pays for your film and your images.
Mine was AH-1G Cobra mechanic. So me, being neither, means I'm paying for the film and the prints.
I just new it felt right to do what I did. As for the two units I worked with:
The Cobras of LTC Tom Denny's 4/77th Attack Helicopter Battalion (Reinf) and LTC Gary Luck's 2/17th Air Cavalry Squadron accounted for 315 kills out of 464 aerial TOW engagements.
As for me, I was about to meet up with a man who would take what I didn't know how to do really well and turn that into an asset. And that man was at the time LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe.
After all, what I am going to be telling you about a unit in Germany and a few of my own heroes along my the way. Without them, I wouldn't be writing this in the first place. And I certainly would never be gutsy enough to or have the skull set I needed to pull off what I did without their support.
4th Battalion, 77th Field Artillery(ARA), 101st Airborne Division(Air Mobile)
Unlike the 4077 MASH unit, the 4/77th was a 36 AH-1G Cobra Battalion. And unlike the "Gunships" the press believe every Cobra in Nam was called, our Cobras were Aerial Rocket Artillery platforms heavily armed with 72, 2.75 inch rockets and either two mini guns or 70mm grenade launchers or one mini gun and on grenade launcher.Ours looked like this:
A Gunship looked like this:
See the extra armor protection on the side and the 30mm Canon.
So what started off as a way to complete my time in Vietnam, turned out to be a way for me to tell the story about the differences between a "Cavalry Gunship" and the "Aerial Artillery Platform." And I was pretty much pleased with myself when my articles saw print in Rendezvous With Destiny, Stars and Stripes and Army Times.
But something clicked. Didn't know anything about photography--what shutter speeds were or what lenses could do or what f-stops were. All I knew was editors were going gaga over them and people I took images of others wanted copies and other people kept stealing my images!
The young man who replaced me said, "Man, you're going to be a tough act to follow."
Based on what I knew back then my thoughts were that won't be to hard to do if you know how to write a story. They have plenty of images, now. I just smiled back.
What was about to cement in stone my passion and my destiny was seeing on the freedom plane my article published in Army Times. From that point, destiny was already scribing legacy.
I can thank Retired Col. Craig Gies for kick starting my career.
BACK TO THE 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION (Air Assault) I GO!
I have this unique talent for being at the right place at the right time. So, before getting orders to head From Fort Huachuca, AZ to Fort Campbell, KY, I would wind up taking an image of an Ordnance Officer standing on a 500 pound bomb.
I didn't take this image but he was standing on one of these drinking some milk. I personally thought was hilarious. This was the result of a train with 12 cars filled with 500 pound bombs caught fire and decided to make the middle of the desert outside of Benson look like a B-52 Arc Light bombing run.
The reason why I was allowed out there in the first place was because I was working for the Fort Huachuca Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and I took images of the aftermath to be used for the after actions report for both the EOC and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD).
The picture of the Officer drinking milk while standing on top of one of those 500 pound bombs got published in the Serra Vista Herald.
The other humorous story here is that 1 of the 500 pound bombs was found in Tuscon inside a damaged four car and the press had a field day, "OMG! if it went off it would..." was pretty much their theme song. If you notice, there are no fuses in them. So our local EOD people unceremoniously went up to Tucson, place the 500 pound bomb on a mattress in the back of a 3/4 ton, secured it and then took it to Fort Huachuca where they blew it up into non-existence.
I arrived at Fort Campbell, KY with my wife and it just so happened that now Major Craig Gies was there and we got to talking about my disdain for the 2/17th Cavalry verses being assigned to the 4/77th.
As it turned out, Craig invited me over to his house and also said there was nothing he could do about the assignment. I met an E-5 -- don't remember his name -- at Craig's place -- who was also assigned to the 2/17th Cavalry and to the same Troop I was being assigned to.
After arriving, that E-5 came up to me and asked, "Did you really do the things he said you did?"
"Was it good or bad?"
The e-5 looked a bit frustrated, so I said, "If you talking about the time where I found a pair of tail rotor bearings when they wasn't any of them in Vietnam, yes. If you're talking about the time I took over 2 of our sections to the 2/17th Cavalry and told a Major there that I had a Direct Order from the Divarty Commander to put them there, yes. And if your talking about the time where I single-handedly, helped to completely rebuild our unit from a logistics perspective after it pretty much got wiped off the face of the earth from a massive rocket attack, yes."
"As for the rest of the stuff I did, I can neither conform or deny such mischief. What I can say is every day was uniquely different and never dull around Craig."
I worked on a couple of AH-1G Cobras for a few months and decided to test the waters to see if the Squadron would be willing to place more emphasis on my writing and photography skills verses me being a Cobra Mechanic.
So, I talked to LTC Burnett R. Sanders. Sanders was not only interested, he was 101% percent behind what I was about to do.
When I knew him, LTC Burdett R. Sanders stood all of 5'7". He was instrumental in developing an a morale intensive environment for the 2nd Squadron, 17th Air Cavalry.
The first part of this environment included creating a program that brought the soldiers into the world of the mission tasking.
This was literally unheard of. Even in Vietnam, very few soldiers actually knew what was going on with respect to daily mission activities. Yes, the infantry was briefed on each task they were to perform but to have a similar daily briefing on mission activities which included all of the soldiers involved simply didn't happen.
It did for each soldier involved with the 2/17 Cavalry between 1973 and 1975 when LTC was Burnett R. Sanders the commanding Officer.
The second part of this morale intensive environment involved public affairs and more specifically me.
My job was to develop a program that would focus on the individual and how that job title played an important role in the success of that area of expertise and how it affected the overall performance of the Squadron.
Today, we call that process management. My job was to highlight all the sections that built up to Squadron level.
We accomplished this by providing Division Public Affairs with "Day in the life of" photo features, our "Out Front" newsletter, a very dynamically driven awards and decorations program and timely images -- pictures without articles -- to the editor of the Fort Campbell Courier.
When the 101st Airborne Division Air Assault celebrated its 101st birthday, it was my images that took up two pages in three different newspapers: The Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, The Courier Post and The Hopkinsville New Era.
Many of these images were of the Air Assault demonstration.
When we went to Fort McCoy, I was there to take pictures and to document -- I was with the Blue Platoon when it launched an attack on the National Guard. I brought a screen and a move projector and showed movies.
When we went to Fort Bliss, Tx, I went in a C-130 and took pictures of the C-5A as it opened the cargo door and we unloaded it.
When we went to Fort Polk, La, I went with LTC Sanders and, again, I brought a screen and a move projector and showed movies.
We weren't just about Cobras and recon. We also had an ground Troop. D Troop used 106 recoilless rifles. Photographing them in action was awesome.
I remember, once, taking a picture of a jeep dropped at 500 feet from under a chopper. Wasn't pretty.
We didn't just photograph exercises.
When the women of he officers wives club went to a retirement home up in hopkinsville, I took pictures and wrote a story about it. I remember an older gentleman kept on insisting we see a young man at the retirement home. When I asked him what the age was of this young man, he said 53.
As I write this, I'm almost eight years older than that "young man"
We also once landed at a school up in Hopkinsville. I'm not sure why we did but one school teacher thought it might be nice if we could return with some of the other helicopters we used. So, we did after a few weeks and I took pictures and wrote the article.
There were times when we just had fun laughing at ourselves. Maj McDermitt comes to mind. I accidently took a picture of him holding the purses of then BG Jack V. Mackmull wife's gloves and purse. LTC Sander's wife thought that to be totally hilarious considering McDermitt was well known for not liking to do such things.
So, I printed it up and it was given to Maj. McDermitt during the hail and farewell ceremony for LTC Sanders. When Maj. McDermitt wasn't happy at me he would billow out "Edwards".
This time I said while in the hallway, "I'm not here sir." That made everyone laugh.
As if that wasn't enough salt in the wound, then BG John N. Brandenburg asked McDermitt to have me report to him so he and I could have a picture taken together. Guess who had to take the picture?
It was sad to see such a good leader leave after a year and a half but that's the way of the Army. LTC Gary E. Luck assumed command.
Working interactively with the Division Public Affairs Office, I met John AG Klose and an Sergeant by the name of Charles "Chuck" Drake. Chuck was an extremely gifted and talented young man who was willing to work with me on my writing. With his help and with LTC Burnett R.Sanders approval and LTC John AG Klose's enthusiasm I managed to average a story and a picture in the Fort Campbell Courier. There were also times when 10 of my images were used over a two page spread -- known as a double truck -- and published in more than one newspaper.
Not only did the military paper use the images, so did the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle and the Hopkinsville New Era.
In 1975, I re-enlisted and received orders to head to Germany. In January of 1976, I received a Commander Certificate and an Army Accommodation medal for the work I did.
But my work was just getting started. I still had a lot to learn about writing and photography. I just had to convince the CO and XO of the 3rd Combat Aviation Battalion (CAB), 3rd Infantry Division of that fact.
WHEN THINGS TO WORK OUT, RATCHET UP THE STAKES
I pretty much crashed and burned on my first attempt to gain traction on being the 3rd CAB. My wife arrived in Country and we had to leave to go back to the States because her brother died. I had an issue with my TA-50 gear being stolen back in the states and that didn't help. The camel's back got broken when the Inspector General (IG) Inspection found me to be in a critical job title.
No one wanted me but the Aid De Camp for the Harvey Barracks' 1 Star saw me on gate guard, wanted to know what I was doing there and I told him.
One month later, I took over the Special Services Photo-lab. You can imagine what happened after that, I learned photography like my life depending on it. What I could do with film and photographic paper was amazing. Worked with color slide film and how to do Cibachrome.
About the same time, I was hearing about the 101st Airborne Division coming over on REFORGER 76. On top of that, my unit just had a change of command and the 3rd CAB was going to be sponsoring the 158th Aviation Battalion. Its Commanding Officer was LTC John AG Klose.
The local Special Services supervisor had added a new civilian to run the photo-lab, so I had plenty of time to take pictures of the soldiers from the 101st getting things ready for the rest of the 101st to arrive and I sent them back to the Fort Campbell Courier.
"NOT ONLY CAN'T YOU WRITE, BUT IF YOU COULD, OUR RIFTED OFFICER WITH A DEGREE IN WRITING COULD GET US PUBLISHED"
That's what the XO, Major Scheely said to me months back before I took over the photo-lab.
He threw me out of the library when I told him LTC John AG Klose was the Public Affairs Officer at the101st when I was there and is now the CO of the 158th Aviation Battalion whom which we were sponsoring during their stay in Germany.
When LTC John AG Klose did see me, he said "Dick, what are you doing?"
I said, "Running a photo-lab, sir."
He said, "Not going to happen. Want me to talk to your boss?"
I thought, when does an E-5 have this kind of decision making clout, but said, "Yes, sir."
"Okay, done. By the way, Public Affairs wants to know how you're getting images back to the states when no one else is doing it."
"I'm sending them through the Bundespost -- the German post office."
"Have time to work with me?"
"Yes sir!"
The 101st Airborne Division Air Assault, conducts what's known as an Air Assault in Action demonstration. The Division was planning one for all the European dignitaries in Europe.
Up until recently, I wasn't able to prove that the images published in Army Aviation Digest were mine.
You can check those out here.
And to prove it, here's some more
And:
General John Wickham Jr was standing meside me when I took the image of the Huey under the camouflage and I gave him my camera so he could see for himself how the image would look.
LTC John AG Klose dropped me off where the Air Assault In Action was to take place and I walked up to my enemy -- anyone with a camera, I consider an professional rival -- and asked, "Anyone know what is going on here?"
As soon as I asked the question, out in the middle of the field, "Dick Edwards get over here."
Oh, my gawd, its LTC Gary E. Luck. So, I went over to him started to salute him but instead he opted for a hand shake.
"What are yo udoing out here?"
"Sir, I'm here to take pictures."
Well, he got a bit testy, "I meant who gave you permission to be out here?"
"Oh, well, I'm running a photo-lab at Harvey Barracks in Kitzingen and my direct boss said it was okay. Also, LTC John AG Klose invited me."
"Great, are you going to take some good pictures."
"Yes, sir."
"Where are you developing your images?"
I'm thinking, didn't I just tell you?
"At my photo-lab at Harvey Barracks in Kitzingen."
And I saluted him, he did the same and I walked away.
Now everyone wanted to know what I knew about what was about to happen. So I told them. Got into position and got ready to take the pictures that you see above.
Second one:
So, I'm up in my lab and I've just finished processing the film and am running the prints through the dryer.
There is a knock on the door.
There is a second knock on the door.
There is a third and louder knock on the door.
I'm tinking whose ever knocking on that door can't read the closed sign.
So, I go to answer it and Immediately stand at attention. Its a Full Bird Colonel.
"At ease. Are you Sergeant Edwards?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'm here to pick up pictures. Gary E. Luck sent me."
At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't something in the water or the European environment has caused the US Army to go completely nuts.
I get a LTC asking me if it is okay to talk to my boss and now, I have a Full Bird Colonel doing errand runs for an LTC.
Not only that, what would have happened if I decided to do the images later?
I have no idea whatever happened to those images past that point. What I do know is the 101st recommended an impact Army Accommodation medal but it was denied by the 3rd Infantry Division as I had just received one 8 months prior.
For those of you who don't know this, photographs seldom ever get used from unofficial resources. In fact, your job title is Journalist or photographer and the military pays for your film and your images.
Mine was AH-1G Cobra mechanic. So me, being neither, means I'm paying for the film and the prints.
I just new it felt right to do what I did. As for the two units I worked with:
The Cobras of LTC Tom Denny's 4/77th Attack Helicopter Battalion (Reinf) and LTC Gary Luck's 2/17th Air Cavalry Squadron accounted for 315 kills out of 464 aerial TOW engagements.
As for me, I was about to meet up with a man who would take what I didn't know how to do really well and turn that into an asset. And that man was at the time LTC Gerald E. Lethcoe.
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